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

Multicentric Castleman disease of hyaline vascular variant presenting with unusual systemic manifestations: a case report

Background

Castleman disease is a rare lymphoproliferative disorder presenting with localized or disseminated lymphadenopathy and systemic manifestations. It can be categorized in numerous ways, such as unicentric versus multicentric, histopathological variants (hyaline-vascular, plasma cell, and mixed), or subtypes based on causative viral infections (human immunodeficiency virus, human herpesvirus-8, or Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus). Presentation ranges from asymptomatic to symptoms involving multiple organs. Even though the exact mechanism of pathogenesis is unknown, treatment is directed toward possible etiologies such as interleukin-6, cluster of differentiation 20, and viral agents.

Case presentation

A 36-year-old Sri Lankan woman presented with generalized body swelling and foamy urine of 2 weeks’ duration. Examination revealed pallor; generalized edema; axillary, cervical, and inguinal lymphadenopathy; hypertension; and hepatomegaly. Investigations showed bicytopenia, nephrotic range proteinuria with hypoalbuminemia, hypogammaglobulinemia, and features of hyaline-vascular type Castleman disease in a lymph node biopsy. She was managed with rituximab and had good clinical improvement.

Conclusions

Castleman disease has a broad spectrum of clinical manifestations, disease pathogeneses, and associations and/or complications. Medical professionals need to be familiar with this spectrum because timely diagnosis and aggressive targeted therapy are the cornerstones of managing these patients.

IL-5 in the plasma-cell-dominant Castleman disease: a nosological entity

A 40-year-old male presented with a history of low-grade fever, weight loss, night sweats and breathlessness of 3 months duration. On examination, the patient had freely mobile lump in left lumbar region. The lump was surgically excised. Histological examination and immunohistochemistry of the specimen were consistent with the diagnosis of plasma cell variant of the Castleman disease. The patient had polyclonal hypergammaglobulinemia, anemia, eosinophilia and elevated interleukin (IL)-6 level. The level of IL-5 was not measured; however, the presence of eosinophilia indirectly suggests an increased IL-5 level. He obtained complete remission after resection of lump and 20 months of surgery had no signs and symptoms of diseases recurrence with normal hematological parameters. We discuss the role of IL-5 in the pathophysiology of the Castleman disease along with dysregulated overproduction of IL-6.