Angiosarcoma in post-mastectomy lymphoedema. A report of one case of Stewart-Treves syndrome.

A 67 year old woman developed lymphoedema in the ipsilateral arm about 1/2 year after radical mastectomy for carcinoma of the breast with no metastases. 11 years later she developed an angiosarcoma in the same upper arm and this spread rapidly to the forearm and chest wall. She had considerable bleeding from the lesions and had to be given repeated blood transfusions. Radiotherapy was without effect and she died of pulmonary emboli 3 months after the diagnosis of angiosarcoma was made. No sign of distant metastases, 0ut a small carcinoma was found in the right breast. On going through the literature, the author has found 206 cases of Stewart-Treves Syndrome (development of angiosarcoma in post-mastectomy lymphoedema), 7 of which were from Scandinavia.