Images in Clinical Medicine

Cecal Kaposi's Sarcoma

Tamer Atassi, M.D., and Elizabeth Montgomery, M.D.

N Engl J Med 2003; 349:2340December 11, 2003

• Slide

Article

A 35-year-old man with human immunodeficiency virus infection was admitted because of weight loss, fatigue, anorexia, and chronic, watery, nonbloody diarrhea. The workup for diarrhea revealed steatorrhea (110 g of fat per 24 hours). The patient had a history of chronic pancreatitis. A computed tomographic scan of the abdomen showed a cecal polypoid mass (arrow, Panel A). On colonoscopy, a 4-cm mass was seen at the cecum (Panel B). Examination of biopsy specimens of the mass showed proliferating spindle cells infiltrating the lamina propria, a finding consistent with the presence of Kaposi's sarcoma.

Tamer Atassi, M.D.
Elizabeth Montgomery, M.D.
Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287