BACKGROUND: Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is the most common neoplasm in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). To date, no therapy has proved to be consistently effective. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of intralesional interferon-alpha in patients with epidemic KS who were taking zidovudine. METHODS: Up to five lesions in each of 14 patients entered into the study were injected with 1 million U of interferon-alpha three times weekly for 6 weeks. Sterile water was used as a placebo control. The median zidovudine dose was 500 mg/day. The median CD4 count was 23/microliters. RESULTS: Of 14 patients evaluated, 13 of 14 (93%) showed a clinical complete response (CR) or partial response (PR) to therapy. Of 54 lesions injected, 41 (76%) showed a CR and 5 (9%) showed a PR, which resulted in an overall response rate of 85%. CONCLUSION: Intralesional interferon-alpha produced a high response rate in injected lesions of KS, but it failed to demonstrate superior efficacy over the placebo.
BACKGROUND:Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is the most common neoplasm in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). To date, no therapy has proved to be consistently effective. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of intralesional interferon-alpha in patients with epidemic KS who were taking zidovudine. METHODS: Up to five lesions in each of 14 patients entered into the study were injected with 1 million U of interferon-alpha three times weekly for 6 weeks. Sterile water was used as a placebo control. The median zidovudine dose was 500 mg/day. The median CD4 count was 23/microliters. RESULTS: Of 14 patients evaluated, 13 of 14 (93%) showed a clinical complete response (CR) or partial response (PR) to therapy. Of 54 lesions injected, 41 (76%) showed a CR and 5 (9%) showed a PR, which resulted in an overall response rate of 85%. CONCLUSION: Intralesional interferon-alpha produced a high response rate in injected lesions of KS, but it failed to demonstrate superior efficacy over the placebo.
Authors: J Clark; W Sikov; F Cummings; M Browne; W Akerley; H Wanebo; A Weitberg; T Kennedy; B Cole; J Bigley; J Beitz; J Darnowski Journal: J Cancer Res Clin Oncol Date: 1996 Impact factor: 4.553