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Kaposi sarcoma

Sarcoma Kaposi · Kaposiho sarkom

What it is

A tumour of vessel-lining cells driven by human herpesvirus 8, flourishing when immunity fails — in AIDS and after transplants — in a slow classic form in older men of Mediterranean or Eastern European descent, and in an endemic form in Africa.

Symptoms & signs

  • Painless purple, brown or red patches and nodules, often on the legs and face
  • lesions in the mouth
  • swollen legs from blocked lymph
  • cough or bleeding from lung or gut lesions

🚩 Get help if…

  • call 112 / 911 now Coughing blood or breathlessness
  • call 112 / 911 now Vomiting blood or black stools
  • see a doctor soon New purple patches on skin or in the mouth
  • see a doctor soon Leg or face swelling around the patches

Where it strikes

Medical treatment

  • Biopsy
  • HIV treatment — lesions often shrink on it alone trials support
  • in transplant patients: less immunosuppression, switch to sirolimus
  • radiotherapy, freezing or injected vinblastine for local lesions
  • Liposomal doxorubicin or paclitaxel for widespread disease trials support
  • pomalidomide — FDA accelerated approval 2020

Natural & lifestyle

  • Early HIV testing and treatment
  • leg elevation and compression for swelling

Emerging & experimental

  • Immune checkpoint inhibitors
  • topical rapamycin

Alternative, off-label & anecdotal

Approaches used outside the guidelines, with what their supporters report and what testing has found so far.

  • Topical timolol — case reports of small lesions shrinking early / small studies
  • Herbal immune boosters — untested; some interact with antiretrovirals anecdotal / traditional

ICD codes