A case of glomeruloid hemangioma associated with multicentric Castleman's disease

Glomeruloid hemangioma is a term that was coined J.K.C. Chan and colleagues in 1990 because the condition is histopathologically similar to renal glomeruli. In the three cases described to date, there have been signs of POEMS syndrome of multicentric Castleman's disease. We present the case of a 44-year-old Korean woman who developed glomeruloid hemangioma in association with multicentric Castleman's disease and some features of POEMS syndrome. It is interesting that in this patient, the first biopsy specimen revealed an immature vascular tumor that could not be precisely classified and the second indicated glomeruloid hemangioma. The present case may lend support to the suggestion that in POEMS disease, some types of vascular proliferations develop in response to angiogenic stimuli that show a spectrum of histopathologic features, and glomeruloid hemangioma is one of the reactive vascular proliferations. We believe that the primitive vascular tumor seen in the first biopsy specimen may be the most immature stage of this spectrum.