What is Castleman's?
Castleman's disease is a benign but deadly disorder first described by Dr. Benjamin Castleman in 1956.   Castleman's disease (CD) is a rare non-cancerous disorder in which body defense cells known as lymphocytes and plasma cells increase in numbers by expanding lymph nodes  CD is sub classified as localized or multi centric according to distribution and further subdivided into "hyaline-vascular" "plasma cell" , or "mixed" types based on the microscopic appearance of tissue biopsies that are required for the diagnosis.  Localized disease generally presented with a single enlarged lymph node in the central chest space above the heart known as the mediastinum, whereas the much less common Multi centric disease is characterized by enlarged lymph nodes elsewhere (e.g. abdomen).