Surgical treatment of primary hepatic lymphoma: report of five cases / 中国普通外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the clinicopathological features of primary hepatic lymphoma (PHL).Methods Data of 5 PHL cases treated at our hospital between 1998 and 2002 were retrospectively analyzed. Results The patients were all male with a mean age of 43 6 years. Abdominal pain and fever were the most frequent presenting symptoms. Four (80%) were positive for the hepatitis B virus antigen. Tumors were all removed surgically in the 5 patients. Pathologic examination revealed B cell lymphoma, T cell lymphoma and Hodgkin′s disease in 2, 2 and 1 patients, respectively. Moreover, coexistent tumors were incidentally discovered by histology in 2 cases. ConclusionThere seems to be a close relationship between hepatitis B virus infection and the development of PHL; PHL should always be considered in the differential diagnosis for patients presenting with mass lesions in the liver; Surgical resection whenever feasible should be attempted as a part of combination modalities.