Histomorphological Profile of vascular tumors in Cameroon

AIM In Cameroon scanty data related to the histopathology of vascular tumors are available. Our objective was to study different morphological aspects of these vascular tumors. METHODS We carried out a descriptive and retrospective study over a  5 year period, from 1 st September 2004 to 31 st August  2013. We included patients with vascular tumors ascertained  by a histolological report.  RESULTS  550 patients were recruited with 349 (63, 45 %) male and 201 (46, 55 %) female. The sex ratio was about 2:1. Patients mainly came from the Center region ( 30, 18 % ) and the Littoral region ( 23, 82 %). The site of the lesion was essentially cutaneous (64, 90 %).  Among the lesions, 119 (21, 64 %) were benign, 393 (71, 5 %) intermediate (or locally aggressive) and 38 ( 6, 91 %) were malignant. Among the benign lesions, capillary hemangioma ( 56, 41 %) and cavernous hemangioma ( 23, 08%) were the most frequent types.  The intermediate lesions were dominated by  Kaposi sarcoma (98, 22 %), the retiform  and  Kaposiform  hemangio-endothelioma  accounted for less than 2 %.  Among the malignant group ,  angiosarcoma  other than Kaposi sarcoma was the most frequent  ( 55, 26 %) , followed by  malignant hemangiopericytoma ( 23, 68 %) followed by the epithelioid  hemangio-endothelioma ( 21, 05 %). CONCLUSION  Vascular tumors in Cameroon have various histomorphology with mostly aggressive and malignant forms.