[Successful treatment of Stewart-Treves syndrome with liposomal doxorubicin].

The Stewart-Treves syndrome (STS) is a lymphedema-associated angiosarcoma which usually develops in female patients after mastectomy and axillary lymph node dissection. A 55-year old woman developed STS in her lymphedematous left arm seven years after breast-preserving surgery with axillary lymph node dissection and radiotherapy. Various therapies which have been employed are radiotherapy and isolated limb perfusion with cytostatic agents. Since our patient had a huge lesion with additional chest wall involvement, neither approach represented a good option. Radiological staging showed no evidence of further lesions or metastases. We started infusion therapy with liposomal doxorubicin (20 mg/m2 body surface) fort six cycles at regular intervals of 14 days. The patient tolerated the therapy well. Palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia, a well-known side effect of doxorubicin, did develop. Because the disease was stable, the therapy interval was increased to six weeks after the 6th cycle. The patient has shown no recurrence for eight months. STS is a very rare variant of an angiosarcoma with poor prognosis. The case report shows that liposomal doxorubicin provides an effective therapeutic option.