This article is part of the supplement: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Malignancies in AIDS and Other Acquired Immunodeficiencies (ICMAOI): Basic, Epidemiologic, and Clinical Research .

Poster presentation

Pathology of rituximab-induced Kaposi sarcoma flare: role of B-cell depletion

L Pantanowitz¹, K Früh², D Aboulafia³, S Marconi¹ and BJ Dezube⁴

¹  Department of Pathology, Baystate Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA

²  Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon, USA

³  Virginia Mason Medical Center, Seattle, Washington, USA

⁴  Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

corresponding author email

from 11th International Conference on Malignancies in AIDS and Other Acquired Immunodeficiencies (ICMAOI): Basic, Epidemiologic, and Clinical Research
Bethesda, MD, USA. 6–7 October 2008

Infectious Agents and Cancer 2009, 4(Suppl 2):P33doi:10.1186/1750-9378-4-S2-P33

Published:	17 June 2009

First paragraph (this article has no abstract)

Kaposi sarcoma (KS) flare (exacerbation) may occur following therapy with corticosteroids, as part of the immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome seen with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), and after rituximab therapy. The exact mechanism responsible for iatrogenic KS flare is unclear. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the pathologic features in cases of AIDS-associated KS flare.