title: Treatment strategies for Kaposi sarcoma in sub-Saharan Africa: challenges and opportunities.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this review is to summarize recent published literature on treatment of AIDS-associated Kaposi sarcoma, the most common HIV-associated malignancy and a leading cancer diagnosis in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and to highlight the challenges faced in treating Kaposi sarcoma in this resource-limited environment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There are few prospective clinical trials for Kaposi sarcoma treatment in SSA, along with a relatively poor cancer treatment infrastructure, leading to late diagnosis and poor access to therapy. The only prospectively randomized trial of chemotherapy compared antiretroviral therapy (HAART) alone to HAART with combination chemotherapy with doxorubicin, bleomycin and vincristine (ABV), and documented a significantly higher rate of tumor regression for the combination along with improvement in quality of life and no adverse effects on HIV control. Other studies suggest that gemcitabine may be an active second-line chemotherapeutic agent after failure of HAART and ABV and suggest that AIDS-associated Kaposi sarcoma in children may respond well to HAART with chemotherapy. There are also (primarily retrospective) data suggesting a beneficial effect of HAART on Kaposi sarcoma, but some evidence for Kaposi sarcoma as a manifestation of immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Opportunities and need exist for prospective research to establish evidence-based guidelines for the most effective treatments for Kaposi sarcoma in SSA.
authors.affiliation: AIDS Malignancy Consortium, c/o The EMMES Corporation, Rockville, Maryland, USA. krowns@mskcc.org
authors.forename: Susan E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Krown
mesh_terms: D017088:AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology; D017954:Africa South of the Sahara; D023241:Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012514:Sarcoma, Kaposi / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology