Clinical analysis of malignant bone vascular tumors.

Objective To retrospectively analyze the diagnosis, treatment and clinical outcomes of malignant tumors of blood vessels in bone. Methods From October 1998 to November 2008, 7 patients were diagnosed as malignant vascular tumors of bone, which include 4 hemangioendothehomas, and 2 an-giosarcomas. Their data was retrospectively reviewed. There were 4 males and 3 females, with the average age of 42.6 years, range from 19 to 65 years old. The lesions were located in the vertebral body (1 case) and extremities (6 cases). One patient was multiple lesions and the others were solitary. All patients suffered with local pain, and showed osteolytic lesions in X-ray, two of them associated with sofe tissue tumor. The patient, whose vertebral body was involved, underwent marginal resection and postoperative radiation. Among the ex-tremity patients, one patient with multiple lesions had not accepted any treatment, and the other 5 patients received wide resection or amputation. The diagnosis of all patients was confirmed by pathology. All patients were followed up 1-89 months (average 40 months). Results Among the patients, two died during the fol-low-up, one died due to lung or liver metastases at the 23rd month after the operation, and the other unrelat-ed to the disease three years after the operation. One recurred in the soft tissue six years after operation and got local resection. The untreated patient was alive with the tumor and lung metastases. The other patients remained disease free during follow-up. Conclusion The key of diagnosis is histological examination, there are some specific radiographic appearances help diagnose malignant vascular tumor of bone. It is essential to perform wide resection for malignant tumor of blood vessels, adjuvant radiotherapy could be considered for spinal patients with currottagc. The hemangioendothelioma seems to have better chnical outcome than an-giosarcoma. Key words: Bones;  Hemangioendothelioma;  Hemangiosarcoma;  Prognosis