Surgery with curative intent is associated with prolonged survival in patients with cutaneous angiosarcoma of the scalp and face -a retrospective study of 38 untreated cases in the Japanese population.

BACKGROUND: In patients with cutaneous angiosarcoma of the scalp and face, the validity of surgery remains controversial, because of the potentially diffuse nature of involvement and difficulty in obtaining negative margins.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the survival benefit of surgery as a primary treatment.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Fifty-one patients with primary cutaneous angiosarcoma of the scalp and face presenting with locoregional involvement were referred to National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan, between May 1982 and March 2013. Data of those patients in whom the diagnosis had been confirmed histologically and the primary treatments had been initiated at our center were analysed retrospectively. Only untreated cases were selected with aim to evaluate actual survival benefit of surgery as a primary treatment.

RESULTS: Of the 51 patients, 38 were found to be eligible for inclusion in this analysis; of these 38 patients, 29 (29/38 = 76.3%) patients had tumour diameter > 5 cm, and 29 underwent surgery with curative intent (curative-intent surgery) as the initial treatment. Histologically positive margins were found in 10 patients. Multivariate analysis identified curative-intent surgery as being significantly associated with improved overall survival (OS; HR = 0.26; 95% CI, 0.10-0.63). In the Surgery group, neither negative margins nor combined-modality treatment had any significant influence on the OS.

CONCLUSION: Removal of primary tumour with curative-intent surgery may be a valid treatment option even for patients with primary cutaneous angiosarcoma of the scalp and face larger than 5 cm in size, regardless of the histological surgical margin status.