Axillary Castleman's Disease

ABSTRACT

Castleman's disease is a giant lymph node hyperplasea that was initially described by Castleman in 1956. Although the mediastinum was the site of disease in the majority of patients, these tumors may develop wherever lymph nodes are present; specifically, the retroperitoneum as well as the cervical, pelvic, and axillary regions. Microscopically, two distinct histologic entities have been described; (1) the hyaline vascular type characterized by small hyaline follicles and interfollicular capillary proliferation; and (2) the plasma cell type characterized by large follicles with sheets of plasma cells. A 3-year old male patient was admitted due to a palpable right axillary mass of 45 days duration. An axillary mass, 5X3X2.5 cm in size, was completely removed from the right axillary region without complication, and was comfirmed histopathologically as axillary Castleman's disease of the hyaline vascular type.