Yasuro Obana

A case of malignant transformation in thoracic vertebral hemangioma following repetitive irradiation and extraction

We report a rare case of thoracic vertebral hemangioma which developed into angiosarcoma during the course of repetitive operations and irradiation. A 44 year old female was operated on for hemangioma of the first thoracic vertebra. The diagnosis of hemangioma was confirmed histo‐pathologically with the specimen from the first operation. The tumor developed multiple lesions later in the clinical course after the first operation, these lesions were removed in four consecutive operations and each histologlcai diagnosis was that of hemangioma. Throughout the period of these operations, the patient was treated wtih steroid, and with radiotherapy simultaneously. The patient underwent the fifth operation for the recurrence of the tumor on 26 March 1990, and the histopathological diagnosis was not hemangioma but hemangiosarcoma which was considered a malignant transformation. The tumor cells immunohistochemically revealed positive staining with UEA‐I, Factor‐VIII, as the tumor immunohistochemically showed a vascular endothe‐lioid nature.