Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome-related Kaposi’s sarcoma regression after highly active antiretroviral therapy: biologic correlates of clinical outcome

Background: Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) is the most common cancer seen in subjects with acquired immunodeficiency syn-drome (AIDS). KS etiology and pathogenesis are still ill de-fined, and no definite improvement in survival has been ob-tained with current chemotherapeutic regimens. This open prospective study was aimed at evaluating the clinical re-sponse of AIDS-related KS to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), a combination of protease and reverse transcriptase inhibitors, as well as the relationship between clinical response, human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) burden, and antibody titer against human herpes-virus 8 (HHV8) proteins. Patients and Methods: Fourteen KS patients were studied; 12 were in the poor-risk group. At given intervals, the patients underwent clinical examination, and their CD4+ cell counts, plasma HIV-1 RNA levels, an