Early- and late-stage Kaposi's sarcoma lesions exhibit similar proliferation fraction

There are few studies on the proliferative activity of cells in Kaposi's sa rcoma. It remains unclear whether the different progressive histologic stag es of Kaposi's sarcoma correlate with the proliferative activity of the tum or. To clarify this issue, we studied the Ki-67 proliferation index in 40 s pecimens of acquired immune deficiency syndrome-related Kaposi's sarcoma in correlation with the histologic stage of the lesions. The mean proliferati on index in our combined material was rather low (8%, range 1-20%) and ther e was no significant difference among the different stages of the disease. Contrary to a common and probably misleading concept, our results suggest t hat the histologic progression of the Kaposi's sarcoma is not related to an increase of the proliferative compartment.