Castleman's disease of the abdomen and pelvis: report of three cases and a review of the literature.

Three cases of Castleman's disease (CD) of the abdomen and pelvis are reported. Tumoral lesions were located in the lymph nodes of the head of the pancreas, the gastropancreatic fold, and around the left iliac artery. Histologically, all the tumoral lesions demonstrated the hyalinevascular type of CD. This unusual presentation made CD difficult to diagnose preoperatively, since these lesions more closely resembled malignant tumors on computed tomography and angiography. We discuss the problems of diagnosing and classifying CD, together with a review of the literature.