CASE REPORT article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Surgical Oncology
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1675203
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Esophageal Cancer: Treatment Updates and Future ChallengesView all 26 articles
Diagnostic Dilemma: A Rare Case of Oesophageal Hyaline Vascular Unicentric Castleman's Disease Mimicking Carcinoma
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shenzhen Hospital, Southern Medical University, Shenzhen, China
- 2The Seventh Affiliated Hospital Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, China
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Castleman's disease (CD) is a rare, benign lymphoproliferative disorder of unknown aetiology. CD occurring in the oesophageal region is exceedingly rare and may be misdiagnosed as oesophageal carcinoma or lymphoma, thus posing challenges for subsequent treatment selection. A 54-year-old male with a one-month history of chest pain was admitted to our hospital. Barium oesophagography and contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) revealed stenosis in the lower oesophagus, accompanied by wall thickening at the gastroesophageal junction. Positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) revealed increased glucose metabolism in the oesophageal region and lymph nodes, which was suspicious for malignancy. However, a gastroscopic biopsy revealed only inflammatory granulation tissue without evidence of malignancy. Following partial oesophagectomy with intrathoracic oesophagogastric anastomosis, pathology revealed onion-skin hyperplasia of lymphoid follicles with hyalinized vessels. Combined with immunohistochemistry, these features confirmed hyaline vascular type Castleman's disease (HV-CD). The patient exhibited good postoperative recovery. We described a rare case of oesophageal unicentric Castleman's disease (UCD) and highlighted the significant diagnostic challenge in distinguishing oesophageal CD from oesophageal tumours preoperatively. Furthermore, we emphasized the dual significance of complete surgical resection for UCD, achieving both a definitive diagnosis and curative treatment.
Keywords: Castleman's disease, Hyaline vascular type, Oesophagus, Diagnostic dilemma, unicentric Castleman's disease
Received: 29 Jul 2025; Accepted: 13 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cai, Zhu, Guo, Kuang, Zhang and Tan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
jianhua Zhang, zjh_0528@126.com
Jianfeng Tan, tjf_601@smu.edu.cn
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