Hemangioendothelioma overview

Overview
Hemangioendothelioma is used to describe a group of vascular neoplasms that may be considered benign or malignant in their activity. They have been described as masses that fall between a hemangioma and angiosarcoma. They are vascular tumors that commonly present with an enlarging mass and have been reported in the head and neck, intestines, lungs, lymph nodes, pleura, retroperitoneum, stomach, and many other body sites. Surgical resection, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy have all been used to treat these masses.

In hemangioendotheliomas, the cell of origin is the endothelial cell, and they range from benign to frankly malignant lesions.

They typically occur in young patients, especially in the soft tissues of the limbs and are often closely related to veins, from which they are thought to arise. Less frequently they can arise in bone (osseous haemangioendothelioma), in which case they are most often seen in the calvaria, spine or lower limbs.

Diagnosis
Radiologically they appear the same as angiosarcomas and haemangiopericytomas.