Castleman's disease in carcinoma gall bladder.

Castleman's disease (CD) also known as angiofollicular lymph node hyperplasia represents a group of uncommon non-clonal lymphoproliferation. We herein report a case of CD associated with carcinoma of the gall bladder. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first of its kind and has not been reported in the past. The hypothesis regarding the aetiopathogenesis of CD is that it is associated with interleukin-6 surges. This may be explained by the overproduction of IL-6 by tumour cells or IL-6 production due to a long-standing/smouldering localised inflammatory response. An important question raised by this observation is whether the finding of CD has any effect on the outcome of this patient of carcinoma of the gall bladder. Further research is required in this matter.