Simultaneous occurrence of Kaposi's Sarcoma and chronic myelogenous leukemia

We report here a 75-year-old man from South France who developed Kaposi`s S arcoma (KS) 5 months after diagnosis of Philadelphia-chromosome positive ch ronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). He was found positive for HHV-8 by PCR, n egative for both HIV 1 and HIV 2 by serology, and had a normal CD4/CD8 rati o. Favourable evolution of both CML and KS has been obtained with vinblasti ne and interferon alpha treatment, The patient is currently alive in comple te remission of SK and major cytogenetic remission of CML with a 48 month f ollow-up. Since no immune deficiency could be documented in the patient, th is rare observation suggests that CML may have triggered the onset of SK th rough cytokine release.