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Review
. 2022 Apr 10;14(8):1915.
doi: 10.3390/cancers14081915.

The Role of Radiotherapy in Treating Kaposi's Sarcoma in HIV Infected Patients

Laurent Quéro  1   2 , Romain Palich  3 , Marc-Antoine Valantin  3 , On Behalf Of Cancervih Working Group
Affiliations
Review

The Role of Radiotherapy in Treating Kaposi's Sarcoma in HIV Infected Patients

Laurent Quéro et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is a radiosensitive cancer regardless of its form (classical, endemic, AIDS-related, and immunosuppressant therapy-related). Radiotherapy (RT) is an integral part of the therapeutic management of KS. RT may be used as the main treatment, in the case of solitary lesions, or as palliative therapy in the disseminated forms. The dose of RT to be delivered is 20-30 Gy by low-energy photons or by electrons. The complete response rate after RT is high, around 80-90%. This treatment is well tolerated. However, patients should be informed of the possible risk of the development of late skin sequelae and the possibility of recurrence. With the advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), the indications for RT treatment in HIV-positive patients have decreased.

Keywords: AIDS; HIV; Kaposi; radiotherapy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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