title: Anaplastic Kaposi's sarcoma: a study of eight patients.
abstract: Anaplastic Kaposi's sarcoma is a rare form of vascular tumor, clinically notable for its high local aggressiveness, propensity for deep invasion and increased metastatic capacity. This cancer arises in patients with a history of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) and because of its rarity, few clinical data are available. To gain insight into this rare disease, we present eight cases of anaplastic KS which developed in eight out of 578 (1.4%) patients suffering from classic KS and followed in our department over a period of 30 years. Clinically, seven patients presented with deep tissue invasion. All the anaplastic cases underwent systemic chemotherapy and five received a non-conservative surgical therapy. Four (50%) out of the eight patients are now in complete remission, while three (37.5%) of them died of anaplastic Kaposi's sarcoma and one (12.5%) died of pneumonia after an excellent response to chemotherapy alone. Our findings suggest that in patients with anaplastic KS, non-conservative surgery associated with systemic chemotherapy may lead to complete remission, avoiding the poor outcome reported in previous cases.
authors.affiliation: U.O. Dermatologia, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda - Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, via Pace 9, 20122 Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Athanasia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tourlaki
authors.affiliation: U.O. Dermatologia, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda - Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, via Pace 9, 20122 Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Sebastiano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Recalcati
authors.affiliation: U.O. Dermatologia, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda - Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, via Pace 9, 20122 Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Vinicio
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Boneschi
authors.affiliation: U.O. Dermatologia, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda - Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, via Pace 9, 20122 Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gaiani
authors.affiliation: U.O. Dermatologia, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda - Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, via Pace 9, 20122 Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Colombo
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Molecular Medicine and Biotechnology, Don C. Gnocchi Foundation, ONLUS, IRCCS, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mancuso
authors.affiliation: U.O. Dermatologia, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda - Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, via Pace 9, 20122 Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Lucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Brambilla
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012514:Sarcoma, Kaposi / Q000473:pathology*; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*
keywords: Kaposi's sarcoma; anaplastic; chemotherapy; lymphedema; prognosis; treatment