Primary Pancreatic Lymphoma: Recommendations for Diagnosis and Management

Primary pancreatic lymphoma (PPL) is a rare disease representing 0.1% of all malignant lymphomas, which lacks well-defined diagnostic and therapeutic protocols. We conducted a systematic review to analyze demographic, diagnostic and therapeutic features of PPL.

This review identified small series and single case reports. Sources were MEDLINE, PubMed, and the Cochrane library from January 2001 to December 2020. Data were screened, extracted and the risk of bias analyzed by three independent reviewers.

A total of 107 eligible papers (17 small series, 90 single case reports) describing 266 patients were identified. Patients had a median age of 53.1 (range 3-86) years and were males in 64.6% of cases. Abdominal pain and jaundice were the most common presenting symptoms, affecting 75.3% and 41.8% of patients, respectively. PPL had a median size of 60.6 mm (range 16-200) and it was localized in the pancreatic head in 63.7% of cases. At diagnosis most patients underwent ultrasonography followed by computed tomography. PPL typically showed low echogenicity, and lower contrast enhancement than solid tumors. Histopathological specimens were obtained by percutaneous or endoscopic biopsies in 47.7% of patients; abdominal surgery was performed in 33.5% of cases. Overall, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma was the most frequent histological diagnosis (53.6%). However, patients aged <18 years were affected by Burkitt lymphoma in 52.4% of cases. Most patients (53.6%) received immunochemotherapy (IC) or IC plus radiotherapy (14%). Demolitive surgery appeared to be associated with impaired survival. Central nervous system (CNS) relapse or progression was observed in 20% of patients.

PPL is a rare entity, with some peculiar features at modern imaging. For diagnostic purposes percutaneous or endoscopic biopsies might be preferable, as opposed to surgery. No definite data is available about the optimal treatment, which should be tailored on the histological type and associated with CNS prophylaxis.