A Case of Castleman's Lymphoma and Review of the Japanese Literature

• Published in: Nihon Kyōbu Shikkan Gakkai zasshi Vol. 14; no. 1; pp. 21 - 28
• Main Authors: Hasegawa, Hideyuki, Goto, Takato, Kikuchi, Fukusaburo, Ide, Ken, Onoue, Masaaki, Oki, Shigeo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: Japan The Japanese Respiratory Society 01.01.1976
• Subjects: Adult; Female; Humans; Hyperplasia; Lymph Nodes; Mediastinum; Syndrome
• ISSN: 0301-1542; 1883-471X
• DOI: 10.11389/jjrs1963.14.21

A case of intrathoracic Castleman's lymphoma was presented and 41 cases from the Japanese literature were reviewed. A 38-year-old housewife was referred to our clinic because of a hilar mass shadow in the right hilum on a routine roentgenogram of the chest. This abnormal shadow was discovered by mass screening when she was 15 years old, and had gradually doubled in size over 23 years without clinical symptoms. Surgically, because of firm adhesion and excessive bleeding, pneumonectomy was performed. The tumor measured 7×8×8cm, weighted 85g, was encapsulated by fibrous membrane. Microscopically, there was marked lymphoid hyperplasia with capillary proliferation and many clear nodules resembling Hassall's corpuscle. Including our case, 41 cases of this disease have been reported in Japan, 32 of them occurring within the chest, while 9 cases were extrathoracic. The age of the patients ranged from 8 to 61 years and there was no sex predominance. In most of the cases, there were no clinical symptoms and no specific hematological abnormalities. At surgery, although the majority of the lesions were resected by enucleation, in some cases lobectomy or pneumonectomy was done, because of firm adhesion, excessive bleeding, or being mistaken for a malignant tumor. The pathogenesis of this disease remains unclear, but we consider it more likely to be a hamartoma than inflammation.