Curēus
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Castleman disease is a lymphoproliferative disorder characterized by atypical lymph node hyperplasia and systemic symptoms; it can also affect the skin and blood counts. The condition is categorized by the extent of involvement (unicentric or multicentric) and the observed lymph node pathology (hyaline-vascular, plasma cell or mixed cellularity). Pathogenesis also has a role in the classification and treatment of multicentric Castleman disease; this variant can either be related to the presence of human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8) infection or associated with POEMS (polyneuropathy, organomegaly, endocrinopathy, monoclonal proteins and skin changes) syndrome, or idiopathic. ⋯ Her pulmonary symptoms and infiltrates on scan resolved after treatment with systemic levofloxacin, indicating that she had an antibiotic-sensitive afebrile pneumonia. We postulate that her siltuximab therapy blocked the IL-6-associated fever and constitutional symptoms that normally are a hallmark of pneumonia. Therefore, patients who are receiving medications such as siltuximab and tocilizumab that block the IL-6 pathway and impair the acute phase inflammatory response may fail to manifest constitutional symptoms such as fever when infected.