Castleman disease is a rare disease of the lymph nodes and related tissues. The disease is also known by the names Castleman’s disease, giant lymph node hyperplasiaand angiofollicular lymph node hyperplasia (AFH) (Takhar, 2017). The disease was described first by Dr. Benjamin Castleman in the 1950s and thus its name. The disease causes an excessive overgrowth of cells of the lymph system.the overgrowths are often similar to lymphomas or cancers of the lymph nodes. However, it is important to note that the disease is not cancer. According to some researches, a form of castleman disease known as multicentric Castleman disease acts very much like lymphoma or can eventually develop to it.
Tissues affected by Castleman disease
There are two main types of Castleman disease: unicentric and multicentric castleman diseases. The Unicentric Castleman disease affects a single lymph node region. The Unicentric Castleman disease affects the lymph node tissues and is more localized than the Multicentric Castleman disease. The Multicentric Castleman disease can further be classified into HHH-8 –Positive or HHV-8 –Negative. The Multicentric Castleman disease affects the lymph nodes and the lymphatic tissues. Moreover, the multicentric Castleman disease can cause severe weakening of an individual’s immune system. The Multicentric Castleman disease can also affect lymphoid tissue of the internal organs such as the liver or spleen. Therefore, they cause them to enlarge.
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Prevention
There is no known risk factor that makes an individual susceptible to Castleman’s disease. Due to this, it becomes difficult to prevent the disease. There is no clear risk factors to be avoided in order to avoid the disease. However, the multicventric Castleman disease is common with individuals with HIV/Aids. The virus that causes Aids accelerates or increase the chances of an individual getting multicentric Castleman disease (Takhar, 2017). Therefore, it can be possible for individuals to avoid getting the disease by ensuring that they avoid getting HIV/Aids. This is the only way the disease can be avoided. However, it is not the most effective way as statistics suggests that many adults and children suffering from the disease do not have HIV/Aids. The statistics suggests that there is no know best or effective way to prevent this disease.
Treatment
The preferred treatment of unicentric Castleman disease is performing a surgical removal of the mass. The use of steroids and/or rituximad during adjuvant surgery is important in making the bulky tumor to shrink. The good thing to note with unicentric Castleman disease is that an individual can resume their normal health after the affected lymph node is removed (Filliatre-Clement, 2017). On the other hand, surgery is not the best option in the case of multicentric Castleman Disease. The disease affects many lymph nodes and thus the irrelevance of surgery as a treatment option (Filliatre-Clement,2017). Treatment of this type of Castleman Disease often involve use of therapies and medications to reduce and control the abnormal growth of cells. The specific treatments often depend on the extent of the disease and the presence of other conditions like HIV/Aids.
Is this condition curable?
The unicentric Castleman Disease can be cured through surgery. The individuals suffering from it can be able to live normally after surgery (Takhar, 2017). The reason for this is that the unicentric Castleman Disease often affects smaller number of tissues than the multicentric Castleman Disease. On the other hand, multicentric Castleman Disease is not curable. There is no known proper medication that can make an individual get back to their original health state. The available medications are only meant to reduce the rate of growth and reduce the chances of the disease developing into cancer.
References
Filliatre-Clement, L, Busby-Venner, H., Moulin, C.& Roth-Guepin, G. (2017). Hodgkin Lymphoma and Castleman Disease: When One Blood Disease Can Hide Another. A Case Reports in Hematology, 1 (1), 1-22.
Takhar, R. (2017). Intrathoracic Castleman’s Disease: “An Important Clinical Mimicker”. Lung india, 34 (2), 197-199.
