Treatment of radiation-associated angiosarcoma

Abstract

Purpose of review 

Radiation-associated angiosarcoma is a cutaneous aggressive tumor that is very rare and it represents a specific entity poorly studied in literature. It requires new therapeutic opportunity.

Recent findings 

The complete surgical resection with negative margins is the mainstay treatment of localized treatment, even though it is difficult to reach in case of diffuse cutaneous infiltration. Adjuvant re-irradiation may improve local control with no benefit demonstrated on survival. Many systemic treatments can be efficient not only in metastatic setting but also in neoadjuvant setting in case of diffuse presentation. These treatments have never been compared to each other; the most efficient regimen remains to be determined, and a high heterogeneity of treatment is observed, even between sarcoma reference centers.

Summary 

Immune therapy represents the most promising treatment under development. At the time of building clinical trial to assess the efficacy of immune therapy, the lack of randomized studies prevents the identification of a strong and consensual reference arm treatment. Given the rarity of the disease, only international collaborative clinical trials may have a chance to include enough patients to draw any conclusion and so will have to counteract the heterogeneity of management.