title: Cellular and Molecular Characterization of Two Cases of Castleman's Disease, Plasma Cell Variant.
abstract: We report the cellular and molecular characterization of two cases of Castleman's disease, plasma cell variant, that differed in their clinical presentation and course. Patient 1 had Castleman's disease in association with Kaposis's sarcoma unrelated to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and died while he was receiving an aggressive chemotherapeutic regimen for Kaposi's sarcoma. Patient 2 had an isolated retroperitoneal lymphoid mass with an adjacent enlarged limph nodes and his symptoms disappeared completely following the surgical removal of both. Pathologic and immunohistochemical analyses in both cases, revealed that there was a massive infiltration of polyclonal plasma cells in the interfollicular areas of the lymph nodes. Immunoglobulin gene rearrangement studies confirmed the polyclonal nature of B-lineage cells in the involved lymph nodes. Southern blot experiments failed to demonstrate the presence of EBV genome copies in the same lymph nodes. These paradigmatic cases lend further support to the notion that Castleman's disease is an extremely heterogeneous entity.
authors.affiliation: a Servizi di Immunologia Clinica e Anatomia Patologica, Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca, Cancro, Genova.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Roncella
authors.affiliation: b Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche e Oncologia Umana, Universita', di Torino.
authors.forename: P F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Di Celle
authors.affiliation: a Servizi di Immunologia Clinica e Anatomia Patologica, Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca, Cancro, Genova.
authors.forename: E S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: D'amore
authors.affiliation: c Istituti di Patologia Medica e Clinica Medica I, Universita', di Parma.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Casoli
authors.affiliation: a Servizi di Immunologia Clinica e Anatomia Patologica, Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca, Cancro, Genova.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cutrona
authors.affiliation: a Servizi di Immunologia Clinica e Anatomia Patologica, Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca, Cancro, Genova.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Muzzulini
authors.affiliation: d Istituto di Oncologia Clinica e Sperimentale, Universita', di Genova.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Quaini
authors.affiliation: a Servizi di Immunologia Clinica e Anatomia Patologica, Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca, Cancro, Genova.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nicolo
authors.affiliation: b Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche e Oncologia Umana, Universita', di Torino.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Foa
authors.affiliation: d Istituto di Oncologia Clinica e Sperimentale, Universita', di Genova.|e Laboratorio di Immunopatologia, Istituto G. Gaslini, Genova.|f Centro Interuniversitario per la Ricerca sul Cancro, Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pistoia
keywords: Castleman's disease; immunoglobulin gene rearrangement