A case of primary malignant hemangioendothelioma of the tongue

Primary malignant hemangioendothelioma is extremely rare in the oral cavity. We encountered and treated a case of malignant hemangioendothelioma of the tongue. The patient was a 46-year-old man. He visited our department with the chief complaint of painless swelling of the right side of the tongue. The lesion appeared as a localized mass covered with normal mucosa. The size of the lesion was 27 × 24 × 6 mm. A hemangioma was suspected based on MRI, CT scan, angiography and RI angiography.The tumor was surgically enucleated under general anesthesia. Histopathologic study revealed it to be a malignant hemangioendothelioma. The patient underwent partial resection of the right side of the tongue as secondary treatment 25 days postoperatively.Local recurrence, cervical metastasis, and distant metastasis have not been detected and progress is good 2 years 4 months after reoperation.