Epithelioid hemangioendothelioma

PubMed, the Internet portal of biomedical and life sciences literature, indexed an interesting article, entitled “Epithelioid hemangioendothelioma of the liver” (J Hepatobiliary Pancreat Surg. 2006;13(2):167-71). Authors are Garcia-Botella A, Diez-Valladares L, Martin-Antona E et al from the Department of Surgery, Hospital Universitario San Carlos, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain. Epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (EH) is a rare tumor of vascular origin, which occurs at sites such as soft tissues, liver, or lung, and has a highly unpredictable malignant potential. It is an intermediate entity between well-differentiated hemangioma and angiosarcoma. The authors present two cases of this rare disease in which the tumor was detected fortuitously and the definitive diagnosis was based on histological evidence. Both cases are highly illustrative of the two ways in which hepatic EH can present (nodular or diffuse) and of its diagnostic and therapeutic management. Although EH of the liver has a better prognosis than other hepatic neoplasms, conservative treatment is not recommended. To access the full abstract of the article, click here.