Treatment of HIV-associated Kaposi's sarcoma with paclitaxel.
Saville MW,
Lietzau J,
Pluda JM,
Feuerstein I,
Odom J,
Wilson WH,
Humphrey RW,
Feigal E,
Steinberg SM,
Broder S, et al.
National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
We investigated whether paclitaxel was active in AIDS-associated Kaposi's sarcoma. We gave 135 mg/m2 intravenously over 3 hours every 21 days. Follow-up is available on the first 20 patients, most of whom had advanced Kaposi's sarcoma and severe immunocompromise. Neutropenia was the most frequent dose-limiting toxic effect; novel toxic effects included late fevers, rash, and eosinophilia. Creatinine increased in 2 patients and 1 patient had cardiomyopathy. There were 13 partial responses (65%, 95% CI 41-85%). All 5 patients with pulmonary involvement responded. Paclitaxel appears to be active against Kaposi's sarcoma as a single agent. Further studies, including a randomised trial, are warranted.
PMID: 7603142 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]