Efficacy of a combination of paclitaxel and radiation therapy against cutaneous angiosarcoma: A single-institution retrospective study of 21 cases.

Cutaneous angiosarcoma (CAS) is a rare malignant tumor with a poor prognosis for which neither basic research on molecular pathomechanisms nor clinical prospective studies have progressed. A retrospective study of 28 CAS cases reported that chemoradiotherapy with taxanes was superior to conventional surgery. Since that time, chemoradiotherapy with paclitaxel (PTX + RT) has become a standard treatment. In this paper, we retrospectively investigate 21 cases of CAS that had been treated in the Department of Dermatology at Hokkaido University Hospital. Patients initially treated with PTX + RT followed by maintenance taxane chemotherapy showed better prognosis in overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) (median OS, 28 months; median PFS, 12 months) compared to others (median OS, 10 months; median PFS, 5 months) (OS and PFS: p < 0.05, log-rank test). Our results are consistent with those of a previous study that suggested that PTX + RT followed by maintenance taxane chemotherapy is a better therapeutic option than other interventions, including surgery.