Cancer Health Center

Classic Kaposi sarcoma is found most often in older men of Italian or Eastern European Jewish origin.

Classic Kaposi sarcoma is a rare disease that gets worse slowly over many years.

Symptoms of classic Kaposi sarcoma may include slow-growing lesions on the legs and feet.

Patients may have one or more red, purple, or brown skin lesions on the legs and feet, most often on the ankles or soles of the feet. Over time, lesions may form in other parts of the body, such as the stomach, intestines, or lymph nodes. The lesions usually don't cause any symptoms, but may grow in size and number over a period of 10 years or more. Pressure from the lesions may block the flow of lymph and blood in the legs and cause painful swelling. Lesions in the digestive tract may cause gastrointestinal bleeding.

Another cancer may develop.

Some patients with classic Kaposi sarcoma may develop another type of cancer before the Kaposi sarcoma lesions appear or later in life. Most often, this second cancer is non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Frequent follow-up is needed to watch for these second cancers.