Castleman's disease: a study of a rare lymphoproliferative disorder in a university hospital

Castleman's disease (CD) is a group of rare lymphoproliferative disorders sharing characteristic clinical and histological features, and usually accompanied by a marked systemic inflammatory response. Two histological patterns of lymph nodes were described: the hyaline-vascular and plasma-cell types. The former is more common (80-90%) and tends to be localized. The plasma cell type is more aggressive and usually multicentric. It is interesting that the inflammatory manifestations seem to be related to a lymph node lesion, because the systemic symptoms and inflammatory activity can return to normal after surgical excision or successful medical treatment of the disease. We report here our 15-year experience with this rare disease in King Fahd Hospital of the University, Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia, focusing on the clinical features, therapy, and patients'outcome.