[Multicentric Castleman's disease combined with polyserositis and POEMS syndrome: case report and review article]. / Multizentrische Castleman-Erkrankung in Kombination mit Polyserositis und POEMS-Syndrom ­ Fallbericht und Übersichtsbeitrag.

Castleman disease (CD) is a very rare disorder characterised by hyperplasia of the lymphoid tissue. The aetiology varies considerably and includes autoimmunological, infectious, autoinflammatory and paraneoplastic diseases (e.g. MGUS with POEMS syndrome). What they all have in common is usually a dysregulation/overproduction of certain cytokines and growth factors (including interleukin 6 and VEGF). The sum of these changes sometimes causes very heterogeneous symptoms and thus often makes early diagnosis difficult. The prognosis of unrecognised and untreated disease is very serious and has an average 5­year survival rate of 55-77%. The present paper describes the case of a 79-year-old patient with refractory polyserositis who was correctly diagnosed after > 8 years.