Epidemiology
Kaposi sarcoma (KS) was first described in 1872 by the Hungarian dermatologist, Moritz Kaposi. From that time until the current HIV disease epidemic identified with AIDS, KS remained a rare tumor. While most of the cases seen in Europe and North America have occurred in elderly men of Italian or Eastern European Jewish ancestry, the neoplasm may also occur in patients receiving immunosuppressive therapy.[1] The disseminated, fulminant form of KS associated with HIV disease is referred to as epidemic KS to distinguish it from the classic and transplant-related varieties of the neoplasm.[2]
Histopathology
Although the histopathology of the different types of the Kaposi tumor is essentially identical in all of these groups, the clinical manifestations and course of the disease differ dramatically.[2] Human herpes virus type 8 , also known as Kaposi sarcoma herpes virus, was identified in KS tissue biopsies from virtually all patients with classic, transplant-related, and AIDS-associated KS but was absent from noninvolved tissue.[2]
Classic Kaposi Sarcoma
Considered a rare disease, classic KS occurs more often in males, with a ratio of approximately 10 to 15 males to 1 female. In North Americans and Europeans, the usual age at onset is between 50 and 70 years. Classic KS tumors usually present with one or more asymptomatic red, purple, or brown patches, plaques, or nodular skin lesions. The disease is often limited to single or multiple lesions usually localized to one or both lower extremities, especially involving the ankles and soles.
Classic KS most commonly runs a relatively benign, indolent course for 10 to 15 years or more, with slow enlargement of the original tumors and the gradual development of additional lesions. Venous stasis and lymphedema of the involved lower extremity are frequent complications. In long-standing cases, systemic lesions can develop along the gastrointestinal tract, in lymph nodes, and in other organs. The visceral lesions are generally asymptomatic and are most often discovered only at autopsy, though clinically, gastrointestinal bleeding can occur. As many as 33% of the patients with classic KS develop a second primary malignancy, which is most often non-Hodgkin lymphoma.[3]
Epidemic Kaposi Sarcoma (HIV-Associated Kaposi Sarcoma)
The introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has delayed or prevented the emergence of drug-resistant HIV strains, profoundly decreased viral load, led to increased survival, and lessened the risk of opportunistic infections.[4] The use of HAART has been associated with a sustained and substantial decline in KS incidence in multiple large cohorts.[5,6,7] KS can still appear during HAART with complete suppression of HIV; most cases in the United States occur in patients with high CD4 counts and ongoing HAART.[8]
The lesions that develop may involve the skin; oral mucosa; lymph nodes; and visceral organs, such as the gastrointestinal tract, lung, liver, and spleen. Most patients with HIV disease who present with the mucocutaneous lesions of KS feel healthy and are usually free of systemic symptoms, as compared with HIV patients who first develop an opportunistic infection. The sites of disease at presentation of epidemic KS are much more varied than the sites seen in other types of this neoplasm. While most patients present with skin disease, KS involvement of lymph nodes or the gastrointestinal tract may occasionally precede the appearance of the cutaneous lesions. The disease often progresses in an orderly fashion from a few localized or widespread mucocutaneous lesions to more numerous lesions and generalized skin disease with lymph node, gastrointestinal tract, and other organ involvement. Pleuropulmonary KS is an ominous sign usually occurring late in the course of the disease, especially in patients whose death is directly attributed to KS.
References:
The staging evaluation of patients with classic Kaposi sarcoma (KS) should be individualized. The advanced age of most of the patients, localized nature of the tumor, rarity of visceral involvement, and usually indolent course of the disease should temper the extent of the evaluation. A careful examination of the skin and lymph nodes is sufficient in most cases. For the rare patient with rapidly progressive tumor or signs or symptoms of visceral involvement, appropriate evaluation is indicated. No universally accepted classification is available for epidemic KS. Staging schemes that incorporate laboratory parameters as well as clinical features have been proposed. Since most patients with epidemic KS do not die from the disease, factors besides tumor burden are apparently involved in survival.
The conventions used to stage KS and the methods used to evaluate the benefits of KS treatment continue to evolve because of changes in the treatment of HIV and in recognition of deficiencies in standard tumor assessment. The clinical course of KS, the selection of treatment, and the response to treatment are heavily influenced by the degree of underlying immune dysfunction and opportunistic infections.
The AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) Oncology Committee has published criteria for the evaluation of epidemic KS.[1] The staging system incorporates measures of extent of disease, severity of immunodeficiency, and presence of systemic symptoms. As shown in Table 1 below, the ACTG criteria categorizes the extent of the tumor as localized or disseminated, the CD4 cell number as high or low, and a systemic illness as absent or present.
A subsequent prospective analysis of 294 patients entered on ACTG trials for KS between 1989 and 1995 showed that each of the tumor, immune system, and systemic illness variables was independently associated with survival.[2] Multivariate analysis showed that immune system impairment was the most important single predictor of survival. In patients with relatively high CD4 counts, tumor stage was predictive. A CD4 count of 150 cells/mm³ may be a better discriminator than the published cutoff of 200 cells/mm³. A study is in progress to determine if viral load adds predictive information. None of the previous studies were conducted at a time when highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) was readily available. The impact of HAART on survival in KS requires continued assessment.
| Good Risk (0) | Poor Risk (1) |
---|---|---|
(Any of the following) | (Any of the following) | |
Tumor (T) | Confined to skin and/or lymph nodes and/or minimal oral diseaseMinimal oral disease is non-nodular KS confined to the palate. | Tumor-associated edema or ulceration |
Extensive oral KS | ||
Gastrointestinal KS | ||
KS in other non-nodal viscera | ||
Immune system (I) | CD4 cells ≥ 200/µL | CD4 cells <200 per cubic mm |
Systemic illness (S) | No history of OIs or thrushOIs are opportunistic infections. | History of OIs and/or thrush |
No "B" symptoms "B" symptoms are unexplained fever, night sweats, >10% involuntary weight loss, or diarrhea persisting >2 weeks. | "B" symptoms present | |
Performance status ≥70 (Karnofsky) | Performance status <70 | |
Other HIV-related illness (e.g., neurological disease or lymphoma) |
References:
Classic Kaposi sarcoma (KS) usually is limited to the skin and has an indolent course. Patients with this tumor are predisposed to the development of a second primary malignancy, and the treating physician should consider this factor when arranging a schedule of follow-up treatment for the patient.
Equivalent standard treatment options:
Solitary lesions:
Widespread skin disease:
EBRT used in this manner gave long-term results that were superior to those obtained with radiation therapy administered to successive individual lesions as they appeared.[2]
One patient was treated repeatedly with intralesional injections of 0.25 to 0.50 mg of vincristine, which resulted in complete disappearance of the treated lesion.[9] Multiple courses of therapy were required because of the recurrence of disease in untreated areas.
Electroporation of the skin lesions was combined with intravenous bleomycin for 19 patients with classical KS. Most patients responded after one application, the rest after two or three applications, with a median duration of response of 16 months.[10][Level of evidence: 3iiiDiv]
Lymph node and gastrointestinal tract involvement:
Current Clinical Trials
Use our advanced clinical trial search to find NCI-supported cancer clinical trials that are now enrolling patients. The search can be narrowed by location of the trial, type of treatment, name of the drug, and other criteria. General information about clinical trials is also available.
References:
Treatment may result:
No data are available, however, to show that treatment improves survival.[1] In addition to antitumor treatment, essential components of an optimal Kaposi sarcoma (KS) treatment strategy include highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART), prophylaxis for opportunistic infections, and rapid recognition and treatment of intercurrent infections.
Most good-risk patients, defined by the AIDS Clinical Trials Group as T0, show tumor regression with HAART alone.[2,3,4] Poor-risk patients, defined as T1, usually require a combination of HAART and chemotherapy with discontinuation of the chemotherapy after disappearance of the skin lesion.[2,3,4] The combination of HAART and liposomal doxorubicin resulted in a 5-year overall survival (OS) rate of 85% in 140 patients with T1 disease.[3][Level of evidence: 3iiiDiv]
Local modalities
Small localized lesions of KS may be treated by electrodesiccation and curettage, cryotherapy, or by surgical excision. KS tumors are also generally very responsive to local radiation therapy, and excellent palliation has been obtained with doses at 20 Gy or slightly higher.[5,6] Radiation therapy is generally reserved to treat localized areas of the skin and oral cavity. It is less often used to control pulmonary, gastrointestinal tract, or other sites of KS lesions. Localized KS lesions have also been effectively treated with intralesional injections of vinblastine.[7] Alitretinoin 0.1% gel provided local control in a randomized prospective multicenter trial.[8][Level of evidence: 1iiDiv]
Chemotherapy
In epidemic KS, the already profoundly depressed immunologic status of the host limits the therapeutic usefulness of systemic chemotherapy. Systemic chemotherapy studies in epidemic KS have used as single agents or in combinations doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, vincristine, etoposide, paclitaxel, and docetaxel.[9,10,11,12,13][Level of evidence: 3iiiDiv] The combination of HAART and liposomal doxorubicin resulted in a 5-year OS of 85% in 140 patients with T1 disease.[3][Level of evidence: 3iiiDiv]
Randomized multicenter trials showed an improvement in response rate (45%–60% vs. 20%–25%) and a more favorable toxic effects profile for pegylated liposomal doxorubicin or liposomal daunorubicin, compared to the combination of doxorubicin, bleomycin, and vincristine or bleomycin and vincristine.[14,15,16][Level of evidence: 1iiDiv] During HAART, both pegylated liposomal doxorubicin and paclitaxel are active single agents with response rates close to 50%.[17][Level of evidence: 1iiDiv]
Biologic and targeted therapy
The interferon alphas have also been widely studied and show a 40% objective response rate in patients with epidemic KS.[18,19] In these reports, the responses differed significantly according to the prognostic factors of extent of disease, prior or coexistent opportunistic infections, prior treatment with chemotherapy, CD4 lymphocyte counts lower than 200 cells/mm³, the presence of circulating acid-labile interferon alpha, and an increase in beta-2-microglobulin. Several treatment studies have combined interferon alpha with other chemotherapeutic agents. Overall, these trials have shown no benefit with the interferon-chemotherapy combinations as compared to the single-agent activities.
Recombinant interferon alpha-2a and interferon alpha-2b were the first agents approved for the treatment of KS. Approval was based on single-agent studies performed in the 1980s before the advent of antiretroviral therapy. The early studies demonstrated improved efficacy at relatively high doses. High-dose monotherapy is rarely used today, and instead, interferon is given in combination with other anti-HIV drugs in doses of 4 to 18 million units. Neutropenia is dose limiting, and trials of doses of 1 to 10 million units combined with less myelosuppressive antiretrovirals are in progress. Response to interferon is slow, and the maximum effect is seen after 6 or more months. Interferon should probably not be used in the treatment of patients with rapidly progressive, symptomatic KS.
Imatinib, a c-kit/PDGF (platelet-derived growth factor) receptor inhibitor, resulted in partial responses in 10 of 30 previously treated patients (HAART + chemotherapy).[20]
Bevacizumab, the humanized, antivascular, endothelial growth–factor monoclonal antibody, had a response rate in 5 of 16 patients who did not improve after the institution of HAART and chemotherapy.[21][Level of evidence: 3iiiDiv]
Interleukin-12 had a response rate of 71% (95% confidence interval, 48%–89%) among 24 evaluable patients in a phase I and phase II trial.[22][Level of evidence: 3iiiDiv]
Current Clinical Trials
Use our advanced clinical trial search to find NCI-supported cancer clinical trials that are now enrolling patients. The search can be narrowed by location of the trial, type of treatment, name of the drug, and other criteria. General information about clinical trials is also available.
References:
The PDQ cancer information summaries are reviewed regularly and updated as new information becomes available. This section describes the latest changes made to this summary as of the date above.
General Information About Kaposi Sarcoma (KS)
This section was extensively revised.
Stage Information for Kaposi Sarcoma
Revised text to state that none of the previous studies were conducted at a time when highly active antiretroviral therapy was readily available.
Classic Kaposi Sarcoma Treatment
Added Tsao et al. as reference 1.
Epidemic Kaposi Sarcoma Treatment
Added Tsao et al. as reference 6.
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Purpose of This Summary
This PDQ cancer information summary for health professionals provides comprehensive, peer-reviewed, evidence-based information about the treatment of Kaposi sarcoma. It is intended as a resource to inform and assist clinicians in the care of their patients. It does not provide formal guidelines or recommendations for making health care decisions.
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This summary is reviewed regularly and updated as necessary by the PDQ Adult Treatment Editorial Board, which is editorially independent of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The summary reflects an independent review of the literature and does not represent a policy statement of NCI or the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Board members review recently published articles each month to determine whether an article should:
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PDQ® Adult Treatment Editorial Board. PDQ Kaposi Sarcoma Treatment. Bethesda, MD: National Cancer Institute. Updated <MM/DD/YYYY>. Available at: https://www.cancer.gov/types/soft-tissue-sarcoma/hp/kaposi-treatment-pdq. Accessed <MM/DD/YYYY>. [PMID: 26389335]
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Last Revised: 2018-07-27
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