Electrochemotherapy as "new standard of care" treatment for cutaneous Kaposi's sarcoma.
BACKGROUND
Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a novel modality for the treatment of skin nodules and cutaneous or subcutaneous tumors that allows delivery of low and non-permeant drug into cells. The aim of this prospective single-center study was to evaluate ECT efficacy in the local treatment of Classic Kaposi's sarcoma (CKS) skin localization stage I-II sec. Brambilla et al.


METHODS
Nineteen consecutive patients affected by classic KS were included in this study. All patients underwent blood sampling and concurrent incisional biopsy for histological diagnosis and Kaposi's sarcoma related herpes virus 8 (HHV-8) molecular analysis. ECT treatment of KS cutaneous lesions were performed according to the European Standard Operating Procedures of Electrochemotherapy (ESOPE). The primary endpoint of the study was the evaluation of ECT efficacy in the treatment of KS skin nodules and the assessment of HHV-8 viral load in the peripheral blood following the ECT therapy.


RESULTS
Complete response (CR) was observed in 14 (73.6%) patients after first ECT session, while 3 (15.7%) and 2 (10.5%) out of 19 patients received a second and a third ECT treatment, respectively. Clinical response dragged out the whole follow-up period that ranged between 6 and 31 months with a median of 16 months.


CONCLUSIONS
Clinical management of CKS skin localizations still represents a challenging task for surgeons and oncologists. Therefore, according to this and other author's recent experiences, ECT is claimed to become the "new standard of care" as first line treatment strategy for stage I-II CKS patients.
Department of Surgery "Melanoma, Soft Tissues, Head and Neck, Skin Cancers", Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori Fondazione Pascale Napoli 80131 Naples, Italy. Electronic address: gidimonta@libero.it.
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Di Monta
Department of Surgery "Melanoma, Soft Tissues, Head and Neck, Skin Cancers", Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori Fondazione Pascale Napoli 80131 Naples, Italy.
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Caracò
Department of Surgery "Melanoma, Soft Tissues, Head and Neck, Skin Cancers", Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori Fondazione Pascale Napoli 80131 Naples, Italy.
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Benedetto
Department of Surgery "Melanoma, Soft Tissues, Head and Neck, Skin Cancers", Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori Fondazione Pascale Napoli 80131 Naples, Italy.
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La Padula
Department of Surgery "Melanoma, Soft Tissues, Head and Neck, Skin Cancers", Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori Fondazione Pascale Napoli 80131 Naples, Italy.
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Marone
Molecular Biology and Viral Oncology, Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori Fondazione Pascale Napoli 80131 Naples, Italy.
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Tornesello
Molecular Biology and Viral Oncology, Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori Fondazione Pascale Napoli 80131 Naples, Italy.
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Buonaguro
Unit of Melanoma, Cancer Immunotherapy and Innovative Therapy, Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori Fondazione Pascale Napoli 80131 Naples, Italy.
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Simeone
Unit of Melanoma, Cancer Immunotherapy and Innovative Therapy, Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori Fondazione Pascale Napoli 80131 Naples, Italy.
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Ascierto
Department of Surgery "Melanoma, Soft Tissues, Head and Neck, Skin Cancers", Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori Fondazione Pascale Napoli 80131 Naples, Italy.
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Mozzillo
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000302:isolation & purification; D053672:Electrochemotherapy / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012514:Sarcoma, Kaposi / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D059039:Standard of Care; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*
D004279:DNA, Viral; D014764:Viral Proteins; C107890:assembly protein, Human herpesvirus 8
Electrochemotherapy; HHV-8; Kaposi's sarcoma