Skip to main content

Littoral Cell Angioma

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Pathology

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Pathology ((EP))

  • 142 Accesses

Definition

Littoral Cell Angioma (LCA) is a benign vascular neoplasm that is unique to the spleen. Its tumor cells exhibit a distinct immunophenotype that combines endothelial and histiocytic features. Etiology and pathogenesis of LCA are unknown, but the enigmatic association of LCA with various malignancies is so strong that all LCA patients should be thoroughly screened and followed for concomitant cancers.

Malignant counterparts of LCA, littoral cell hemangioendothelioma and littoral cell angiosarcoma have been described, as well as combined tumors featuring LCA and malignant littoral cell tumor components.

Clinical Features

  • Incidence and clinical symptoms

    The true incidence of LCA is not known. First described in 1991 (Falk et al. 1991) about 200 LCA cases have been published to date. Tumors combining LCA and malignant littoral cell tumor features are exceedingly rare (Ben-Izhak et al. 2001).

    Most LCA are found incidentally by imaging studies as single or multiple, hyperdense...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Arber, D. A., Strickler, J. G., Chen, Y. Y., & Weiss, L. M. (1997). Splenic vascular tumors: A histologic, immunophenotypic, and virologic study. The American Journal of Surgical Pathology, 21(7), 827–835.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ben-Izhak, O., Bejar, J., Ben-Eliezer, S., & Vlodavsky, E. (2001). Splenic littoral cell haemangioendothelioma: A new low-grade variant of malignant littoral cell tumour. Histopathology, 39(5), 469–475.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Falk, S., Stutte, H. J., & Frizzera, G. (1991). Littoral cell angioma. A novel splenic vascular lesion demonstrating histiocytic differentiation. The American Journal of Surgical Pathology, 15(11), 1023–1033.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gakenheimer-Smith, L., Mohlman, J., VandenHeuvel, K., Jackson, W. D., Thomsen, W., Stevenson, A., & Cipriano, F. (2018). A novel presentation of littoral cell angioma and lymphatic malformation in a neonate. Pediatrics, 141(suppl 5), S520–S525.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mac New, H. G., & Fowler, C. L. (2008). Partial splenectomy for littoral cell angioma. Journal of Pediatric Surgery, 43(12), 2288–2290.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Malley, D. P., Kim, Y. S., & Weiss, L. M. (2015). Distinctive immunohistochemical staining in littoral cell angioma using ERG and WT-1. Annals of Diagnostic Pathology, 19, 143–145.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peckova, K., Michal, M., Hadravsky, L., Suster, S., Damjanov, I., Miesbauerova, M., Kazakov, D. V., Vernerova, Z., & Michal, M. (2016). Littoral cell angioma of the spleen: A study of 25 cases with confirmation of frequent association with visceral malignancies. Histopathology, 69, 762–774.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pilz, J. B., Sperschneider, T., Lutz, T., Loosli, B., & Maurer, C. A. (2011). Littoral cell angioma in main and accessory intrapancreatic spleen presenting as splenic rupture. American Journal of Surgery, 201(2), e15–e17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sarandria, J. J., Escano, M., Kamangar, F., Farooqui, S., Montgomery, E., & Cunningham, S. C. (2014). Massive splenomegaly correlates with malignancy: 180 cases of splenic littoral cell tumors in the world literature. Minerva Chirurgica, 68(4), 228–237.

    Google Scholar 

  • Takayoshi, K., Doi, G., Tsuruta, N., Yoshihiro, T., Nio, K., Tsuchihashi, K., Ariyama, H., Odawara, J., Shimoda, S., Kohashi, K., Oda, Y., Itoh, S., Harimoto, N., Maehara, Y., Kusaba, H., Akashi, K., & Baba, E. (2018). Successful chemotherapeutic treatment for metastatic littoral cell angioma. Medicine (Baltimore), 97(15), e0378.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alexander Marx .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Marx, A., RĂ¼diger, T. (2019). Littoral Cell Angioma. In: van Krieken, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Pathology. Encyclopedia of Pathology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28845-1_3830-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28845-1_3830-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28845-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28845-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference MedicineReference Module Medicine

Publish with us

Policies and ethics