What to Know About Immunotherapy for Kaposi’s Sarcoma

Immunotherapy is sometimes used to make the body's own immune system fight cancer.

Immunotherapy boosts the body’s immune system to fight the cancer. This treatment is also called biological therapy.

The most common immunotherapy drug for Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) is interferon alpha. These drugs stop viruses from copying themselves. They also trigger the immune system to fight the virus.

You take an interferon by injection 2 to 5 times a week. It is most effective if you have lesions just on your skin and your immune system is not too suppressed. Your doctor may not recommend this treatment if your CD4 cell count is less than 200 because it can be toxic for people with low CD4 counts.

Angiogenesis inhibitors are drugs that block the growth of new blood vessels that feed the tumor. Here are some of these drugs that studies have shown to work in people with KS.

• Gleevec (imatinib mesylate)

• Interleukin-12

• Metastat (COL-3)

• Thalomid (thalidomide)

The drug Thalomid can cause nerve damage and tiredness. Sexually active men and women should not take it unless you use birth control, because it can cause birth defects.

Another way to treat KS is to treat human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8). That’s the virus that that causes KS. Two of the medications used to treat HHV-8 are Cytovene (ganciclovir) and Foscavir (foscarnet).