[Kaposi's sarcoma in Tainan: report of five cases]

Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is an uncommon cutaneous neoplasm with an increased incidence among Jews and Italians of Europe and North America and Negroes of equatory Africa. In recent years, several cases have been diagnosed in AIDS patients and in patients who have undergone organ transplantation or received immunosuppressant treatments. We have diagnosed five cases of KS over a 3-year period in our department. They include four men and one women, aged from 58 to 79 years, and who were born and had lived in Tainan. They all denied a history of homosexuality, multiple sexual partners, or drug abuse. HIV (Human immunodeficiency virus) screening test were negative. Two patients had taken 'black pills' (usually containing steroids) for a long period of time and also had generalized dermatophytosis. One of these two patients had a cytomegalovirus infection and died of Salmonella septicemia and upper GI bleeding. Although the English literature seems to indicate that KS is rare among Asians. Our present experience coupled with two other recently reported cases from Taiwan and the unpublished observations of some other dermatologists suggest that KS is not all that rare in Taiwan.