Thalidomide in the treatment of Kaposi's sarcoma.
BACKGROUND
Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is a lymphangioproliferative tumour. Therapy of KS depends on the characteristics of the disease, especially area and growth rate of lesions, and patient condition. Currently symptomatic resectable lesions are excised, whereas more advanced disease and unresectable lesions are treated with radiotherapy. If a large area or internal organs are affected or other treatments fail, chemotherapy is used. Recently some authors have reported their encouraging experience in the use of thalidomide in patients with AIDS-related KS.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the efficacy of thalidomide in 3 patients with non-AIDS-related KS.


METHODS
Two patients with classic widespread cutaneous and 1 with iatrogenic cutaneous and visceral KS were treated with thalidomide (100 mg/day) for 12 months.


RESULTS
In all 3 patients partial remission was evident after 4 months of thalidomide therapy; in 2 out of 3 complete remission was achieved after 12 months of treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results seem to confirm the utility of thalidomide in the treatment of non-AIDS-related KS.
Rubegni
Pietro
P
Department of Clinical Medicine and Immunological Sciences, Section of Dermatology, University of Siena, Siena, Italy. rubegni@unisi.it
Sbano
Paolo
P
De Aloe
Giovambattista
G
Flori
Maria Laura
ML
Fimiani
Michele
M
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D000077269:Lenalidomide; D012514:Sarcoma, Kaposi / Q000188:drug therapy*; D013792:Thalidomide / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000627:therapeutic use*