Information About the Treatment for Angiosarcoma
Treatment for angiosarcoma is determined by the stage of the tumor, its location and primary site and the spread of the cancer to other parts of the body. The treatment itself may also be determined by the individual person’s response. A few treatments work fine with some individuals and not so fine with others. It depends on how bad the disease is at time of diagnosis as to the options for treatment will be. Angiosarcomas are aggressive and tend to recur locally and spread widely.
Treatments include:
- Surgical resection
- Radio therapy
- Chemotherapy
Surgical resection is often used with primary angiosarcomas. This treatment for angiosarcoma needs to be done aggressively and it is often difficult to define tumor-free margins. It is difficult to get a completely clear or negative margin at the microscopic level as this tumor can have numerous and irregular vascular channels not easily detected at the cellular level. This is the reason why part of the treatment is radiotherapy. When radiotherapy is combined to a resection procedure, some studies showed improved survival. Radiotherapy is hardly ever used as a leading treatment.
Chemotherapy is also used as an angiosarcoma treatment. Depending on the location of the tumor, doctors may inject chemotherapy drugs directly into the tumor site. Combining chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery is recommended often but the best sequence order is still not known. As of now, treatment should be given separately. Having a diagnosis and a careful plan before surgery is vital. Those patients who are not viable candidates for surgical resection may benefit from chemotherapy or chemo-radiation.
Other drugs that have been showing promise are the angiogenesis inhibitors, i.e. paclitaxel and sorafenib. Angiogenesis inhibitors prevent the formation of new blood vessels so the tumor cannot grow. They also seem to help some chemotherapy and radiotherapy work more effectively when given in combination. Benefits has been shown when using paclitaxel when treating angiosarcoma of the face and scalp.
Researchers are working on other possible treatments for angiosarcoma as this cancer is difficult to treat especially in the advanced stage. Future treatments for angiosarcoma may involve the P53 tumor suppressor gene. This gene has mutated in many cancers which can explain why the body has difficulty dealing with these aggressive tumors. Additional research is required to give doctors better ways to fight this illness.