Reappraisal of primary hepatic lymphoma: Is surgical resection underestimated?

Primary hepatic lymphoma (PHL) is defined as a lympho-proliferative disorder limited to the liver without any involvement of the spleen, lymph nodes, bone marrow or blood. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common histological type counting more than 60-80% of all PHL. Usually, it occurs in middle-aged men with aspecific symptoms and diagnosis is confirmed by histopathology. In order to expand current knowledge and to investigate an optimal therapeutic strategy, a systematic review of literature was conducted in February 2016. A total of 274 articles were retrieved, and after exclusion, 55 were retained, reporting 147 cases of PHL. Patients were mainly men (64.9%) with a median age at diagnosis of 57 years (range: 17-92) and right hepatic lobe involvement (69.6%). Among the 147 patients, 9% received no therapy while 77% underwent treatment including chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy in 64%, 26% and 1% of cases, respectively. Mean follow-up was 22.6 months (range: 0.2-360). Overall mortality was 29.2% with a 90-day mortality of 26%. Risk factors for increased mortality include; bilobar lesions (p = 0.001), right lobe localisation (p = 0.003) and non-surgical approach or the absence of any treatment (p = 0.001). A trend towards favourable outcomes for young patients (mean = 50.4 years) with a large liver lesion was achieved by surgical management of PHL but this did not achieve statistical significance. Statistical analysis indicates that in cases of resectable disease, an aggressive surgical approach in selected patients leads to increase long-term survival. Thus, two hypotheses should be assessed in further randomized studies: 1°) resectable PHL is a less severe form or 2°) hepatectomy is an effective treatment for PHL.