Primary hepatic lymphoma in a patient with cirrhosis: a case report

Abstract

Background Primary hepatic lymphoma is a very uncommon disease. Due to its nonspecific clinical, laboratory, and imaging findings, it is often misdiagnosed. Liver biopsy is required to make a final diagnosis. Chemotherapy is the current gold standard of treatment. Case presentation An asymptomatic 65-year-old Caucasian man with Child-Pugh class A cirrhosis presented to our hospital with a nodular lesion seen on a routine surveillance abdominal ultrasound. His physical examination revealed hepatomegaly and no other significant findings. Magnetic resonance imaging of the abdomen showed a voluminous nodule on the left lobe with heterogeneous contrast enhancement. His liver biopsy was compatible with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Systemic staging showed no evidence of nodal or bone marrow involvement, confirming the diagnosis of primary hepatic lymphoma. He was treated with chemotherapy. However, he developed febrile neutropenia after one of the cycles and died. Conclusions In this article, we report a rare presentation of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and review the current literature on clinical features, diagnosis, and management.

18F-FDG Whole-Body PET-MR in Primary Hepatic Lymphoma Mimicking Focal Nodular Hyperplasia

“…PHL represents 0.4% of extranodal lymphomas and 0.016% of NHLs. 1 Although the pathogenesis of PHL is not well understood, it is usually seen in immunocompromised patients like organ-transplant recipients and individuals with acquired immune deficiency syndrome receiving immunosuppressive therapy. Recently, a strong relation between hepatitis C infection and PHL has also been identified, proposed cause being stimulation of B lymphocytes and chronic polyclonal proliferation, resulting in hepatic lymphoma.…”

Primary hepatic lymphoma in liver cirrhosis: A rare case report

“…Abdominal CT shows hypo-dense lesions, not enhanced or showing patchy contrast enhancement [ 7 , 8 ].…”

Prevalence of benign focal liver lesions and non-hepatocellular carcinoma malignant lesions in liver cirrhosis

“…Chronic liver disease before the onset of PHL has been reported in 9.6 % [59] PHL has also been described in liver cirrhosis [59,60]. HCV infection is found in 20-60 % of patients, indicating that it may be involved in the pathogenesis of the disease [59].…”