Vinblastine, rituximab and HAART, treatment of an HIV -positive patient with multicentric Castleman's disease

Abstract

An HIV-positive man from Somalia presented with severe malaise, weight loss, relapsing fever, lymphadenopathy and splenomegaly. An FDG-PET-scan-guided lymph node biopsy revealed the characteristic histological features of the plasma cell variant of Castleman's disease. A high HHV-8 viral load was detected in the serum (7980 copies/ml). Treatment with HAART, rituximab and vinblastine resulted in a full and rapid recovery and lowered HHV-8 viral load to undetectable levels.