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Kaposi sarcoma is a blood-vessel cancer caused by the herpesvirus HHV-8, made famous by the AIDS epidemic. In people with HIV, antiretroviral therapy alone often shrinks it; liposomal doxorubicin or paclitaxel treat advanced disease, and it remains among the commonest cancers in sub-Saharan Africa, where paclitaxel is often unaffordable.
Kaposi sarcoma is a KSHV/HHV-8-driven vascular tumour with four epidemiologic forms: classic (elderly Mediterranean/Eastern European men, indolent), endemic African (including an aggressive lymphadenopathic childhood form), iatrogenic (transplant immunosuppression), and epidemic (AIDS-associated), plus KS in men who have sex with men with controlled HIV. Lesions involve skin, mucosa, lymph nodes and viscera (lung, gut); KSHV also causes primary effusion lymphoma and multicentric Castleman disease, and KS inflammatory cytokine syndrome (KICS).
AIDS-KS: antiretroviral therapy is the foundation and suffices for limited disease; advanced disease (visceral, oedema, rapid progression, T1 by ACTG staging) adds pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (first line) or paclitaxel, both approved in the 1990s; pomalidomide (2020) was the first new KS drug in two decades and works in HIV-positive and -negative patients. Iatrogenic KS responds to reducing immunosuppression or switching to mTOR inhibitors (sirolimus). Classic KS is treated with local therapy (radiotherapy, intralesional vincristine, cryotherapy) or the same systemic agents. In Africa, where paclitaxel is often unaffordable, bleomycin-vincristine regimens remain in use and ACTG A5263 showed paclitaxel superior to oral etoposide and BV. Immune checkpoint inhibitors show activity in small series.
Averages across everyone diagnosed, often years ago. A median is the middle of a group: half the people counted lived longer than the figure shown, and some lived far longer. Your stage, subtype, age, fitness and the treatment you receive matter more than the average, and the numbers are improving quickly.
About 35,000 cases per year worldwide, most in sub-Saharan Africa where it is among the commonest cancers; caused by Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus (KSHV/HHV-8), with HIV the major cofactor.
Each skin cancer comes from a different cell layer: melanocytes and basal cells at the base of the epidermis, keratinocytes above them, Merkel cells and blood vessels in the dermis; depth of invasion decides the risk.
Same organ: Melanoma, Basal cell carcinoma, Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, Merkel cell carcinoma, Skin cancer (all types), BRAF V600-mutant melanoma, Stage III melanoma (after surgery), Stage IIB and IIC melanoma, Advanced melanoma (unresectable stage III and stage IV), Mucosal melanoma, Acral melanoma, Advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, Locally advanced and metastatic basal cell carcinoma, Bowen's disease (squamous cell carcinoma in situ), Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans
Antiretroviral therapy; observe for regression (watch for IRIS-KS flare); local therapy for cosmetically or functionally important lesions.
ART plus pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (preferred) or paclitaxel; pomalidomide as an oral option; continue until maximal response.
Local radiotherapy, intralesional vincristine or cryotherapy for few lesions; pegylated liposomal doxorubicin, paclitaxel or pomalidomide for extensive disease.
Reduce immunosuppression; switch calcineurin inhibitor to sirolimus/everolimus; chemotherapy if progressive.
ART plus paclitaxel where available (ACTG A5263); bleomycin-vincristine otherwise; task-shifted oncology nursing models.
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Query for this cancer: (TITLE:"Kaposi sarcoma" OR ABSTRACT:"Kaposi sarcoma" OR TITLE:"HHV-8-associated sarcoma" OR ABSTRACT:"HHV-8-associated sarcoma") AND (treatment OR therapy OR trial OR survival OR diagnosis). Results are unfiltered search hits about Kaposi sarcoma, not a curated reading list.
The targets of this cancer's medicines and the ones linked to it directly.
Cases by country, the UK and NHS pathway and other country lenses, the expert centres with trials on record, and the centres named on this cancer's subtypes.
One section per setting: the options named, what each is for, the trials behind them, the recorded trade-offs and the questions to ask.
Bleeding that does not stop by itself, bleeding from more than one site, or new bruising in several places or one large area.
A swollen painful calf, or sudden breathlessness with chest pain; venous and arterial thromboembolism is a boxed warning and blood-thinning prophylaxis is recommended.
Pulmonary toxicity rises with G-CSF, high inspired oxygen, renal impairment and age over 40.
Avoid grapefruit. Live vaccines are contraindicated.
Smoking induces CYP1A2 and lowers exposure by about a third.
Fatal if given intrathecally: label all syringes.
See all on the product pages:BleomycinEverolimusPaclitaxel / nab-paclitaxelPegylated liposomal doxorubicinPomalidomideVincristine·Printable cards in the navigator
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Everything in development, the medicines held by this cancer's subtypes, the open problems and what is being done about them, the roadmaps, and what changed on this record.
Every connected record, the notes, the JSON, Markdown and RDF twins, and where the record came from and when it was checked.