[Analysis of twelve cases of angiofollicular lymph node hyperplasia with literature review]

Angiofollicular lymph node hyperplasia (AFH) is a rare lymphoproliferative disorder disease. This study was to investigate the clinical characteristics, treatment and prognosis of AFH.

Clinical data of 12 AFH patients, admitted in Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital from Oct. 1989 to Dec. 2006, were analyzed. All cases were diagnosed by lymph node biopsy.

Of the 12 cases of AFH, 9 were unicentric disease characterized by localized lymph node enlargement, and 3 were multicentric disease characterized by multiple lymph node enlargement accompanied by systemic symptoms. The 9 patients with unicentric disease received tumor resection and were followed up for a median of 30 months; 8 responded well to surgical resection and 1 was lost. Of the 3 patients with multicentric disease, 2 were treated with chemotherapy and achieved partial remission, 1 received no antitumor therapy and died of multi-organ failure in 21 months.

Unicentric AFH can be cured by surgery alone and have a good prognosis after operation; multicentric AFH needs aggressive and systemic chemotherapy.