Rituximab Monotherapy in the Management of a Rare Case of an HIV Associated Lymphoproliferative Disorder.

Castleman's disease (CD), also known as angiofollicular node hyperplasia, is a rare heterogenous lymphoproliferative disorder. This disease exists as two distinct entities: a localized or unicentric CD (UCD) which has a more benign clinical course and multicentric CD (MCD) which is a systemic disease and carries a worse prognosis. MCD is often associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and these patients are usually coinfected with human herpes virus-8 (HHV-8).

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in a Jehovah's Witness: a management dilemma.

Jehovah's witnesses represent a unique group of patients whose religious beliefs prohibit receiving transfusion of all blood products. Since most chemotherapeutic regimens used to treat acute leukemia are myelosuppressive and often resulting in potentially life threatening pancytopenia, their refusal of blood products poses a challenge to clinicians. We report a case of a Jehovah's Witness patient with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who was successfully treated with non-myelosuppressive chemotherapy for both first and second remission and achieved complete remissions both times without transfusion of blood products.