Chemotherapy of vinyl chloride-associated hepatic angiosarcoma.

The use of systemic chemotherapy was studied in a group of four patients who had hepatic angiosarcoma in association with exposure to vinyl chloride. All of the patients received Adriamycin 60 mg/m2 i.v. q3-4 weeks and in three patients this was combined with Cytoxan 600 mg/m2 and methotrexate 20 mg/m2. Three patients had an objective response lasting four, nine, and ten months. One patient had stable disease for ten months. Responding patients maintained an excellent performance status during therapy. Following evidence of progressive disease, patients died in three, four, and six months. Survival from the time of diagnosis was 11, 13, 15 and 53+ months. Sufficient data are not available from these patients to recommend a specific drug or combination for use in hepatic angiosarcoma, but our data indicate that chemotherapy can improve quality and duration of survival.