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Results of chemotherapy in 30 AIDS patients with symptomatic pulmonary Kaposi's sarcoma
J L Cadranel1, S Kammoun, S Chevret
1Services de Pneumologie et Réanimation Respiratoire, Hôpital Tenon, Paris, France.
Background:
The aim of this study was to report the effects of a three-drug chemotherapy regimen in patients with symptomatic AIDS-related pulmonary Kaposi's sarcoma and to analyse prognostic factors for survival.
Methods:
Thirty consecutive HIV seropositive patients with respiratory symptoms and proven pulmonary Kaposi's sarcoma were treated with the same therapeutic regimen comprising adriamycin (30 mg/m2), bleomycin (10 mg/m2), and vincristine (2 mg) administered intravenously once every four weeks.
Results:
Two patients died during the first course of chemotherapy. In the other 28 cases dyspnoea improved and Pao2 rose despite minimal (n = 17) or no (n = 11) improvement in the chest radiographic appearance. The median survival from the beginning of chemotherapy was 6.5 months. Poor prognostic factors for survival were: (1) absence of cutaneous Kaposi's sarcoma; (2) previous opportunistic infection; (3) CD4 cell count < 100/microliters; (4) leucocytes < 3500/microliters; (5) haemoglobin < 10 g/dl; and (6) absence of radiological response. Of the 28 patients 24 experienced at least one episode of neutropenia which was associated with bacterial infection in 16 cases.
Conclusions:
Chemotherapy may improve respiratory impairment in patients with extensive pulmonary Kaposi's sarcoma but the outcome remains poor. The efficacy of chemotherapy may be limited by neutropenia.