Objective: To study the pathogenesis and the differential diagnosis of Castleman's disease.
Methods: Histopathology, immunohistochemical staining and clinical courses of 26 cases of Castleman's disease (CD) were studied with follow-up study of 16 cases.
Results: The present study included 6 cases of multicentric type, 20 cases of localized type in the clinical aspects and 19 cases with hyaline vascular type, 4 cases with plasma cell type, 3 cases with mixed type in the histologic aspect. The Multicentric type presented systemic lymphadenopathy, anemia, hyperglobulinemia, hepatosplenomegaly, skin changes, and lung disorder and kidney disfunction, of which 1 case died of respiratory and renal insufficiency. 13 of the 20 localized cases were of the hyaline vascular type, and with good prognosis. 7 of the 20 cases showed paraneoplastic pemphigus associated with hyperglobulinemia (4/7) and lung disease (5/7). The pathologic features composed of proliferation of the mantle zone B cell, follicular dendritic cell, plasma cell and small vessels. In immunohistochemical staining, kappa and lambda light chains were detected in each CD case.
Conclusions: Many diseases are similar to CD clinicopathologically. It is important to make differential diagnosis through pathological study. Castleman's disease is a lymphoproliferative disorder. The pathogenesis of this multicentric disorder may be associated with autoimmune disease.