Annals of Oncology Advance Access originally published online on November 25, 2005
Annals of Oncology 2006 17(3):503-506; doi:10.1093/annonc/mdj091
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
© 2005 European Society for Medical Oncology
The presentation and survival of patients with non-cutaneous AIDS-associated Kaposi's sarcoma
1 Department of Immunology, Division of Investigative Science, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine; Departments of 2 HIV Medicine and 3 Oncology, The Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, UK
* Correspondence to: Dr M. Bower, Department of Oncology, The Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, 369 Fulham Road, London SW10 9NH, UK. Tel: +44-208-237-5054; Fax: +44-208-746-8863; E-mail: m.bower{at}ic.ac.uk
Background: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome related Kaposi's sarcoma (AIDS-KS) remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. We describe for the first time a proportion of patients with AIDS-KS who presented with no evidence of cutaneous disease.
Patients and methods: From our cohort of 5932 individuals infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) treated in the HAART era, 319 were identified with KS. Of these, 11 patients (5.4%) were diagnosed with KS without the presence of any cutaneous disease. We compared their survival, clinical, immunological and virological characteristics to other individuals with KS.
Results: There were no statistically significant differences in survival, CD4 count or HIV viral load at KS presentation. We observed that tumour-associated oedema (P = 0.046) and non-oral gastrointestinal KS (P = 0.042) were significantly more common in patients with non-cutaneous KS. Only one case of non-cutaneous KS was observed prior to the era of highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART).
Conclusions: Non-cutaneous KS is a recognisable condition; patients should be treated with the standard of care as their prognosis is not inferior. This is likely to reflect a strong immune response, in the era of HAART.
Key words: HIV, AIDS, Kaposi's sarcoma, HAART, cutaneous
![]()
CiteULike
Connotea
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
M. Joshi, N. Markelova, D. Palacio, and R. M. Schapira A Patient With HIV, Dyspnea, and Multiple Pulmonary Nodules Chest, December 1, 2006; 130(6): 1924 - 1928. [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
