This week's artwork was donated by Lonny, a pediatric cancer patient who received treatment at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia . Till now approx 25 angiosarco- mas have been described in the postirradiation breast. Therapy of choice is ablatio mammae.
Prognosis is determined by local status and the presence of metastasis.
Early recognition and special attention to uncommon skin changes of the treated breast is the main clue to the diagnosis of postirradiation angiosarcoma. We present two case histories of patients who developed a cutaneous angiosarcoma of the breast following conserving therapy. It is unclear whether radiotherapy to the breast is required to reduce the risk of local recurrence of DCIS after local surgery. However, although completeness of excision was a prerequisite for entry into this series, the minimum measurement which was classified as 'complete' was not defined. It seems highly likely that residual DCIS was present in a proportion of cases and may explain the higher recurrence in the no radiotherapy group.