Cryosurgery

The doctor uses liquid nitrogen to freeze and destroy the sarcoma lesions. The lesion will eventually blister, scab, and fall off.

Electrodessication and Curettage

This procedure is sometimes called “scraping and burning.” The doctor uses a surgical instrument called a curette to scrape the lesion from the skin. The doctor then uses an electrical current to kill any remaining cancer cells in the tumor bed and to stop any bleeding. The doctor may repeat this process anywhere from one to three times.

Local Excision

The surgeon uses a surgical knife to remove the tumor and a margin of healthy skin around it. The margin of healthy tissue depends on the size of the tumor. Smaller tumors require less of a margin, and may require stitches and leave a scar. Larger tumors require a larger margin, so the doctor may need to perform a skin graft and replace the skin removed with healthy skin from a different part of the body. In addition to skin grafts, local flap reconstruction may be an option. In a flap reconstruction, nearby skin is moved to cover the wound.

For isolated cases in which the cancer is found in the internal organs of the chest or abdomen (in non-HIV patients and patients who are NOT immunocompromised), surgery may be appropriate. This may entail, for instance, bowel resection.

Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy uses waves of high-energy rays to target and kill cancer cells. Doctors commonly use radiation therapy to treat large or bulky lesions on the skin or oral cavity that may cause pain or discomfort. Radiation therapy is used less commonly to treat Kaposi sarcoma that develops on internal organs.

Antiviral Therapy

For more generalized skin or internal organ involvement.

Highly active antiviral treatment (HAART), which is commonly used to treat the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), is commonly used before other treatments in patients with Kaposi sarcoma who have HIV. This treatment can slow the progression of HIV to AIDS can control and reduces the risk of epidemic Kaposi sarcoma in patients with HIV.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is the use of drugs to target rapidly growing cells in an effort to destroy cancer cells. Doctors commonly use a topical chemotherapy cream or lotion to treat Kaposi sarcoma lesions. If the disease is more widespread, with many lesions or organ involvement, the doctor may recommend traditional systemic (whole-body) chemotherapy.

Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy stimulates the body's immune system and helps it fight cancer cells. Immunotherapy for Kaposi sarcoma can consists of interferon therapy, or the more recent checkpoint inhibitors that allow immune cells in the body to attack the Kaposi
cells.

Clinical Trials

Clinical trials allow patients to try a new treatment before it is available to the general public. In some cases, this may be a new drug that has not been used in humans before, or it may be a drug or drug combination that is not currently used for that specific type of cancer. Early phase clinical trials are often used to test side effects of a drug or drug combination, while later phase clinical trials are used to see how effective a new treatment might be for a certain type of cancer. Clinical trials allow doctors and researchers to improve the treatment of cancers with possibly more effective therapies. A clinical trial may be a new, groundbreaking drug or it may have no effect. It is important to talk with your doctor about the pros and cons of clinical trials for your particular situation.