Secondary Angiosarcoma to the breast?

[tricia keegan]

I just heard yesterday a patient is at risk of this once they've had rads after a lumpectomy for breastcancer, an old friend then posted that she had indeed just been dx with this condition ten years after her initial BC dx, it has a poor prognosis too, just wondering if this is more common these days since more rads and lumpectomies are done???

[suzan w]

Yikes...I have not heard about this. Certainly something to be aware of. Somehow does not seem quite fair, does it?

[Debbie L.]

Yes, I first learned of this when an acquaintance was diagnosed with it. Since then I've known of 2 others. Two are alive at >5 years out and apparently okay, but one died quite quickly.

And it's not just limited to after lumpectomy -- lots of us got rads after mastectomy.

But the main thing is that it's REALLY rare. Here's a systematic review from 2012, which states: "After radiotherapy, the cumulative RIS incidence is 3.2 per 1,000 at 15 years (versus 2.3 per 1,000 for primary sarcoma in a population without radiotherapy)"

[Lien]

I think I know two of those Debbie L. mentioned. I would like to add that the person who died had a lot of trouble getting adequate treatment, due to all kinds of hassles. I've been on two breastcancer boards for over ten years, and I've rarely heard of it. It is a serious type of cancer, but it is treatable.

[tricia keegan]

Thanks Debbie and Lien for your input, I only heard of this while researching for a friend dx with a primary Angiosarcoma of the spine and had not come across it before this, glad to hear its rare as I had read but hoping it stays that way as many people over the past ten years decided on a lumpectomy with rads over a mast.

[Hopeful]

What patients may not realize "in the moment" of making decisions about early bc tx is that pretty much all cancer treatments are toxic, and many cause other cancers "down the road." AC chemo, for example, can cause leukemia. My philosophy has been to avoid the piling on of therapies "just in case," and accept those I think provide the optimal benefits when balanced against the potential long term side effects. I did have lumpectomy and radiation and still believe that rads were the right choice for me, even though I would have foregone the tx if I could not have found a doctor that promised me she could keep my heart out of the tx field. Everything in this disease is a trade off.

Hopeful