ABSTRACT
Liver infiltration by lymphoma is usually secondary and represents advanced disease. Approximately 200 cases of primary hepatic lymphoma have been published so far. Primary hepatic lymphoma represents 0.016% of all non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas and 0.4% of all extranodal lymphomas. Primary hepatic lymphomas have been described in association with chronic liver diseases, although there is no direct experimental evidence supporting a pathogenic link. Hepatic manifestations of B-cell lymphomas usually exhibit characteristic infiltration patterns, allowing the use of restricted immunohistochemical analyses to reach a final diagnosis. In B-cell lymphomas, four major infiltration patterns can be distinguished: diffuse-nodular growth, predominance of portal infiltrates either with dense sheets of neoplastic cells or scattered neoplastic cells in a background of reactive bystander cells, and sinusoidal spread. Diagnosis of primary hepatic lymphoma may evolve incidentally during the evaluation of abnormal liver values or during follow-up of chronic liver disease.
