TREATMENT OF CLASSICAL KAPOSIS-SARCOMA WITH INTRALESIONAL INJECTIONS OF CIDOFOVIR - REPORT OF A CASE

The effect of intralesional injections of cidofovir, a nucleotide anal og with potent in vitro activity against human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8), was studied in vivo in an HIV-negative patient with classical Kaposi's sarcoma (KS). After five weekly injections of the drug, no clinical, histological, immunohistological, or virological changes could be dete cted in comparison with saline-injected lesions. These findings sugges t that, once the KS tumor has developed, active viral replication is n o longer involved in the pathogenesis of the disease. Alternative hypo theses are that HHV-8 replication in blood-borne cells may foster grow th of spindle cells in the skin, or that blocking HHV-8 may not affect existing lesions but may prevent new lesions from developing. (C) 199 8 Wiley-Liss, Inc.