Hepatic Angiosarcoma, going but not gone. Lessons from a single centre experience

Hepatic angiosarcoma is a rare tumour that is often difficult to diagnose. Historically, most cases of hepatic angiosarcoma were seen in the setting of industrial epidemics caused by exposure of workers to toxins such as vinyl chloride. Cases associated with recognised exposure to carcinogens have fortunately been extremely rare for the last three or more decades. However, the tumour has by no means disappeared in the Australian community. In this case series, we describe three cases of hepatic angiosarcoma that were seen at our institution since 2002. The first case presented with cholestatic liver function tests and was found to have angiosarcoma on liver biopsy. In the second case, the patient was admitted for decompensated liver disease on a background of presumed hepatitis B cirrhosis. The diagnosis of hepatic angiosarcoma was made only at autopsy after the patient died from multi-organ failure. The third case presented with ascites and the diagnosis of disseminated angiosarcoma was again made at autopsy following a negative ante-mortem liver biopsy.