Tumors of the vascular system

The annual incidence of malignant vascular tumors is approximately 1-2 neoplasms per 10 million inhabitants. Because vascular tumors and tumorous vascular neoplasms are not included in the TNM system of the UICC (Union Internationale contre la Cancre) and therefore no staging system exists, there is also no generally valid standardized procedure for these types of tumor entity. Accordingly, there are also no guidelines for treatment of vascular tumors, which is essentially due to the fact that they occur only rarely and correspondingly prospective treatment studies are lacking. Often benign tumors and tumor-like proliferations of the vascular system are encountered. The diagnosis of a vascular tumor is only made through the initial symptoms of affected vessels in exceptional cases. Vascular tumors are often only discovered due to the subsequent complications, such as a peripheral embolism or venous thrombosis. A large group of endothelial tumors initially have no connection to the vascular system and clinically are first identified by the differential diagnosis as malignant tumors of the corresponding organ. In order to verify or exclude tumorous processes, the clinical diagnosis must be extended to include technical investigations.