Angiography in soft tissue sarcomas.

Angiography was performed in 41 patients with histologically proven soft tissue sarcomas that included tumors derived from a variety of cell types and locations. The leiomyosarcomas and sarcomas of uncertain or mixed origin showed extensive neovascularity. Liposarcomas, synovial cell sarcomas, and fibrous histiocytic sarcomas were moderately vascularized. Sarcomas originating from vascular, fibrous, neural, and osseous tissues had variable degrees of vascularity. In nearly all of the cases studied, angiography revealed tumor size, extent, source, and degree of vascularity and helped to determine the degree of malignancy. While angiography does not provide a histologic diagnosis, it plays an important role in patient management when a conservative therapy plan that uses several modalities is followed.