[Analysis of twelve cases of angiofollicular lymph node hyperplasia with literature review].

Background & Objective: Angiofollicular lymph node hyperplasia (AFH) is a rare lymphoproliferative disorder disease. This study was to investigate the clinical characteristics, treatment and prognosis of AFH.

Methods: Clinical data of 12 AFH patients, admitted in Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital from Oct. 1989 to Dec. 2006, were analyzed. All cases were diagnosed by lymph node biopsy.

Results: Of the 12 cases of AFH, 9 were unicentric disease characterized by localized lymph node enlargement, and 3 were multicentric disease characterized by multiple lymph node enlargement accompanied by systemic symptoms. The 9 patients with unicentric disease received tumor resection and were followed up for a median of 30 months; 8 responded well to surgical resection and 1 was lost. Of the 3 patients with multicentric disease, 2 were treated with chemotherapy and achieved partial remission, 1 received no antitumor therapy and died of multi-organ failure in 21 months.

Conclusion: Unicentric AFH can be cured by surgery alone and have a good prognosis after operation; multicentric AFH needs aggressive and systemic chemotherapy.