RESUMO
Twenty histologically documented cases of Castleman's disease [CD] are reported, consisting of 13 males and 7 females with age range from early infancy to 49 with an average of 24 years. The disease was localized in ten cases [50%] and multicentric in the rest [50%]. Histologically, fifteen cases [75%] were hyaline vascular [HV], three cases [15%] plasma cell [PC], and two cases [10%] of intermediate type. Patients were followed from 5 to 185 months. Seven patients [35%] are alive with no evidence of disease. Thirteen patients [65%] had recurrent, or intermittent disease despite local excision, or surgery plus chemotherapy; in seven of these [35%] the disease was complicated by concurrent, or subsequent malignancies including: Kaposi's sarcoma [2 cases] Hodgkin's disease [2 cases], malignant lymphoma [2 cases] and one case of angiomatoid malignant fibrous histiocytoma [MFH]. The last case was the only one with fatal outcome [5%] at the time of this writing. Compared to the other series, our cases of Castleman's disease occurred in a younger age group, mostly in men and with cervical lymphadenophaty. A combination of oral chemotherapy consisting of prednisolone and chlorambucil was beneficial after surgery as tried on the cases that showed multiple recurrences