Cutaneous angiosarcoma complicating morbid obesity

Herein, we report a case of cutaneous angiosarcoma in a 35-year-old, morbid ly obese woman. The tumor arose in the most dependent portion of the lower abdominal panniculus and showed typical changes of chronic lymphedema. The patient underwent a radical resection of her lower abdominal wall panniculu s, which showed a multicentric, high-grade angiosarcoma with bilateral supe rficial inguinal lymph node metastases. Histologically, conventional vasofo rmative areas were admired with poorly differentiated sheets of spindle and epithelioid cells. Factor VIII was focally positive (membranous), whereas CD31 showed robust, diffuse positivity (membranous and cytoplasmic). The in itial margins of resection were negative, and no followup radiation or chem otherapy was given. Following a recurrence at the previous excision site, t he patient died 7 months after the surgery. Postmortem examination revealed a widely metastatic tumor that involved multiple organ systems. We believe this is the second report of cutaneous angiosarcoma occurring in a chronic ally lymphedematous abdominal panniculus due to morbid obesity.