Clinicopathological features of primary hepatic diffuse large B-cell lymphoma: a report of seven cases and a literature review.

We studied the imaging and histopathological features of primary hepatic diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in order to explore the clinicopathological features, diagnosis, differential diagnoses, and treatment. Immunolabelling was performed in seven cases of primary hepatic diffuse large B-cell lymphoma using histological and immunohistochemical techniques. The clinical manifestations; imaging, histopathological, and immunohistochemical features; treatment; and prognosis of primary hepatic diffuse large B-cell lymphoma were observed and analyzed in light of the relevant literature. The average age of the seven patients was 63.4 years. Moreover, bulge of the upper right abdomen and progressive athrepsia and anemia were observed in all seven patients. Computed tomography (CT) revealed the presence of multiple solid hypodense lesions. Further, CT also revealed an enhanced irregular focus. Histopathological analysis revealed the following characteristics: heavy infiltration composed mainly of medium-sized round cells with a lightly stained cytoplasm, prominent nucleoli and vesicular nuclei, nuclear fission and visible sky star phenomena. The tumor cells showed diffuse expression of CD19, CD20, and CD79a, with the percentage of Ki67-positive cells being 75%-80%. All these findings indicated that primary hepatic diffuse large B-cell lymphoma is rare and generally has a poor prognosis. Biopsy and immunohistochemical staining are helpful in its diagnosis. Further, the differential diagnoses include secondary liver diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, low/undifferentiated cancer of the liver, hepatoblastoma, leukemia of the liver, and other tumors. Early surgery and chemotherapy can have a good curative effect.