Primary angiosarcoma of the spleen: a case report and review of the literature

Abstract

We describe a 47-year-old man with shoulder pain, multiple bony lesions, and a 1-cm lesion in the spleen. T-1 facetectomy revealed a poorly differentiated malignant neoplasm. Several months after chemotherapy, multiple splenic lesions were found by computed tomography and liver-spleen scan. A splenectomy showed a malignant spindle-cell neoplasm forming irregular vascular spaces. Tumor cells were positive for factor VIII-related antigen and vimentin. This patient died of extensive metastases from this primary angiosarcoma of the spleen. Splenic angiosarcoma is a rare neoplasm that often has a cryptic presentation and a dismal prognosis.