Treatment of AIDS-related Kaposi's Sarcoma With Low-dose Radiotherapy - Follow-up on 2,305 Tumours

BACKGROUND/AIM: We aimed to report our experience obtained by treating AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) with radiotherapy before the era of antiretroviral therapy.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: This investigation was performed as a quality control of KS patients treated with low-dose radiotherapy at our department. KS patients referred to our section from 1983 up until 1990, were treated three times with radiotherapy (29-50 kV, 2-4 Gy), once every second week.

RESULTS: Initially, 74 skin KSs were treated three times with 2 Gy, of which 70% were treated successfully. Hereafter, other 2,066 KSs on the skin were treated three times with 4 Gy with a very high success rate of 93%. Additional 165 mucous KSs were treated three times with 4 Gy, of which 91% were treated successfully.

CONCLUSION: Low-dose radiotherapy is effective for the treatment of many AIDS-related KS patients.