Chemotherapy for AIDS-associated Kaposi's sarcoma

Clinical staging and response criteria for AIDS-associated Kaposi's sarcoma (AIDS-KS) are not well-developed, but classifying patients into limited or extensive disease categories allows a clinician to select appropriate local or systemic therapy. A prospective staging system has been proposed to uniformly evaluate pretreatment patient characteristics and subsequent clinical responses. Combination chemotherapy is effective, but its use is often limited by toxicities. Antiretroviral medications, if clinically tolerated, should be continued during combination chemotherapy. Future therapies will evaluate the utility of ddI or ddC with combination chemotherapy. A second area of research involves combintion therapy using chemotherapy and antiretroviral agents along with growth factors to limit myelotoxicity.