Castleman's disease mimicking a parotid gland tumor: Report of a case and review of the literature

Castleman's disease (giant lymph node hyperplasia, angiofollicular hyperplasia, lymphoid hamartoma, benign giant lymphoma), is a quite rare and complex disease of lymphoid tis - sue that causes progressive lymph node enlarge - ment, typically presenting as a solitary mediasti - nal mass. It was first described by Castleman et al in 1956. The head and neck regions are the sec - ond, less common site for this lesion. The preop - erative diagnosis is very often extremely difficult and the routine investigations are often inconclu - sive. A multicentric extension of this disease shows poorer prognosis compared to the unifocal Histologically, three types do exist: the hya - line-vascular type, the plasma cell type and the mixed type. The etiology and pathogenesis is still unclear. In the literature, to our knowledge, only 112 cases have been reported involving head and neck, and only 22, including our own, interesting the parotid gland. In this report we describe a rare singular of Castleman's disease presenting as a tumor of the inferior pole of the parotid gland extending in the submandibular region, in a 35-year-old woman. The patient un - dergone a surgical treatment and, therefore, the mass was successfully totally removed.