De novo angiosarcoma of the pleura in a young male

Abstract

Angiosarcomas are highly aggressive vascular tumors, which usually take origin from the endothelial cells of small blood vessels. They are extremely rare in the pleura and other serous surfaces such as the peritoneum and pericardium. These tumors are usually well localized, but may sometimes spread diffusely over the pleura and mimic mesotheliomas. Traditional histopathology alone, may not establish the diagnosis with certainty, and immunohistochemistry is essential to clinch the diagnosis. Outcome is usually grave and no formal guidelines exist for the exact therapy. We report this condition in a 22-year-old man who presented to us with a localized fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emissions negative pleural tumor, primarily suspected to be a solitary fibrous tumor, which was eventually diagnosed to be a primary pleural angiosarcoma.

Keywords

• De novo pleural angiosarcoma
• pleural angiosarcoma
• pleural tumor