Soft tissue sarcoma is a rare, serious side effect of radiotherapy to treat breast cancer.
It is associated with the poor prognosis and high mortality.
Since the early 1990’s soft tissue sarcoma incidence rates have been increasing, possibly due to the increase in radiotherapy to treat breast cancer.
The time to diagnosis of radiotherapy induced soft tissue sarcoma is shorter among patients who also receives chemotherapy including anthracyclines and alkylating agents.
Cancer cohort studies suggest at 10 years following radiotherapy the risk of soft tissue sarcoma ranges from 0.15 to 0.21%.
In survivors of breast cancer, who had received radiotherapy, breast conserving surgery, and a history of hypertension, or diabetes, or both, at the time of the breast cancer, diagnosis, are at greater risk of developing a thoracic angiosarcoma (Viera LH).