Primary angiosarcoma of the small intestine with metastasis to the liver: A case report and review of the literature

Abstract

Angiosarcoma is a rare disease with a poor prognosis; significantly, patients with intestinal angiosarcomas who survive over 1 year after diagnosis are extraordinarily rare. This article describes the case of a 33-year-old gentleman who presented with abdominal pain of 4 months duration, which had increased in severity 2 weeks prior to presentation. After a complicated diagnostic and therapeutic process, the diagnosis of primary angiosarcoma of the small intestine with metastasis to the liver was made by pathological and immunohistochemical examinations. We reviewed previous cases of angiosarcoma described in the English literature to determine their risk factors, diagnosis and treatment, and we found that angiosarcoma is extremely rare, especially in the small intestine. To the best of our knowledge, this may be the youngest case of primary angiosarcoma of the small intestine with metastasis to the liver reported in the English literature. © 2013 Ni et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.