ABSTRACT
One of the earliest manifestations of the AIDS epidemic was the abrupt increase in the incidence of Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS; 1). Later review of cancer statistics showed KS diagnoses in young, single men to be a sensitive indicator of when the HIV epidemic first entered homosexual communities. In New York City the incidence of KS started to increase in 1977, at least 3 years before acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) was formally recognized (2). The significance of these few cases was missed at the time because they were seen by different caregivers and because cancer registry data takes several years to be compiled and analyzed.
