Castleman's disease

Abstract

Castleman's disease is a rare disorder with a poor prognosis that may occur in the lymph nodes fine tissues throughout the body. The most common places are the chest, abdomen and the neck. The least common sites include the axilla, pelvis and the pancreas. Usually there is an abnormal enlargement of the lymph nodes found in those sites. There are two main types of Castleman's disease: the hyaline vascular type and the plasma cells type. The hyaline vascular type explains around 90 per cent of the causes. Most of the individuals do not show symptoms of this type of asymptomatic disorder and may develop non cancer type ingrowths in the lymph nodes. The plasma cells type can be associated to fever, weight loss, skin rush, early erythrocytes destruction rarely leading to hemolytic anemia and/or hypergammaglobulinemia.