Vinorelbine therapy in classic Kaposi's sarcoma: a retrospective study of 20 patients.

BACKGROUND

Systemic chemotherapy is the main treatment of diffuse and/or aggressive classic Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) but there are no standard treatment guidelines and published literature regarding vinorelbine is lacking.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the safety and effectiveness of intravenous vinorelbine in the treatment of classic KS.

METHODS

We performed a retrospective study of a departmental database in histologically proven classic KS.

RESULTS

Twenty patients received intravenous vinorelbine as cycles of 20 mg/m(2) once every two weeks for 5 cycles and subsequently at a dose of 30 mg/m(2) once every three weeks. Of 19 assessable patients, three (16%) had a complete remission and 11 (58%) had a partial response, for an overall response rate of 74%. The remaining 5 patients had a stable disease (26%). Grade 3 or 4 toxicities were neutropenia (3/20 patients), deep vein thrombosis (1/20 patients) and constipation (1/20 patients). The median progression-free survival from the start of therapy until the development of progressive disease was 35.1 months.

CONCLUSIONS

Vinorelbine is an effective and overall well tolerated treatment for classic KS.