Epithelioid angiosarcoma of bone

Angiosarcoma of bone is a rare, high-grade sarcoma of vascular origin. This article describes an epithelioid angiosarcoma in the humerus of a 48-year-old man. A multilocular osteolytic lesion with undefined margins and destroyed cortical and medullary bone, associated with a large soft tissue mass was demonstrated radiologically in the proximal metaphysis of the right humerus. The tumor, resected by amputation, was composed mostly of proliferating malignant cells with an epithelioid morphology. It had a predominantly sheet-like growth pattern, and an occasional pseudoglandular or alveolar arrangement, mimicking an adenocarcinoma. The dilated anastomotic vascular spaces lined by epithelioid endothelial cells and the intracytoplasmic lumina/vacuoles that sometimes contained erythrocytes suggested focal endothelial differentiation. On immunohistochemical investigation, many neoplastic cells expressed cytokeratin and endothelial markers: factor-VIII related antigen, CD31, and UEA-I. The ultrastructure of the tumor was consistent with that of an angiosarcoma. Our patient died of disease shortly after the diagnosis, implying an aggressive clinical course. Awareness of the existence of skeletal epithelioid angiosarcoma, combined with the identification of intracytoplasmic lumina, or at least small vasoformative foci, and immunohistochemical positivity for endothelial markers provide the best guide for distinguishing this tumor from metastatic carcinomas. Copyright (C) 1997 by W.B. Saunders Company.