Hiya Dr. Dezube, I was just wondering what new treatments where proposed at the AIDS Conference in Barcelona in regards to treating KS. Are we moving on in the fight to treating and removing KS? How far do we still have to go and what new treatments should we be on the lookout in the near future? Stay cool.

Norman

Dear Norman: Although I was at the AIDS conference in Barcelona and did my best to keep my eyes open to anything related to KS, I do have to admit that I don't recall seeing anything new in terms of KS. (My apologies to any abstract presenters, which I missed). Nevertheless the current treatments for KS are quite good. Virtually every KS patient can derive benefit from the current drug armamentarium. Most KS patients should be on antiretroviral medications, which maximally suppress their viral loads. In addition for systemic therapy, the lipsomal agents Doxil and DaunoXome are quite effective. Taxol works quite well even in the most refractory case. For KS, which has not spread beyond the skin and is localized to a few area, Panretin gel is effective. Panretin gel is one of the few agents which patients can self administer; patients apply it directly on top of the KS lesion. So in short, there's a lot of hope.

In terms of investigational agents, there are alot of promising agents in trials. Many patients benefit from angiogenesis inhibitors. These are agents that block new KS from forming and deprive existing lesions of their blood supply.