Kaposi's sarcoma

[ kuh-poh-seez, kap-uh- ]

noun

, Pathology.

1. a cancer of connective tissue characterized by painless, purplish-red to brown plaquelike or pimply lesions on the extremities, trunk, or head, and sometimes involving the lungs, viscera, etc., occurring in a mild form among older men of certain Mediterranean and central African populations and in a more virulent form among persons with AIDS.

Kaposi's sarcoma

/ kæˈpəʊsɪz /

noun

1. a form of skin cancer found in Africans and more recently in victims of AIDS

Word History and Origins

Origin of Kaposi's sarcoma¹

After Hungarian dermatologist Moritz Kaposi, or Moriz Kohn (1837–1902), who described it in 1872

Word History and Origins

Origin of Kaposi's sarcoma¹

C20: named after Moritz Kohn Kaposi (1837–1902), Austrian dermatologist who first described the sores that characterize the disease