Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2020 Aug 6;12(8):e9583.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.9583.

Primary Pancreatic Large B-Cell Lymphoma Presenting as Acute Pancreatitis

Alay Tikue  1 , Genanew Bedanie  1 , Luis Brandi  2 , Sameer Islam  3 , Kenneth Nugent  4
Affiliations
Case Reports

Primary Pancreatic Large B-Cell Lymphoma Presenting as Acute Pancreatitis

Alay Tikue et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Primary pancreatic lymphoma (PPL) is an extremely rare form of extranodal malignant lymphoma. The most common histological subtype of PPL is diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Clinical and imaging features of PPL may often overlap with pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Therefore, it is very important to obtain a preoperative cytohistology diagnosis of pancreatic tumors to avoid unnecessary surgeries in cases with a diagnosis of PPL. Herein, we report a 71-year-old male who was admitted to our hospital with a diagnosis of acute pancreatitis after he presented with complaints of nausea, vomiting, and epigastric abdominal pain. MRI of the abdomen revealed a pancreatic head mass, and histopathology and immunohistochemical assessment of the pancreatic lesion established the diagnosis of DLBCL. The patient achieved remission after six cycles of rituximab-cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin (hydroxydaunomycin), vincristine (oncovin), prednisolone (R-CHOP) chemotherapy.

Keywords: acute pancreatitis; diffuse large b cell lymphoma; non-hodgkin lymphoma; primary pancreatic lymphoma.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Contrast enhanced axial image through the abdomen shows homogenous confluent mass at the pancreatic head (green arrows), with the duodenum (red arrow), and the surrounding lymphadenopathy (cyan arrows).
Figure 2
Figure 2. Low power magnification of CD20 antibody staining shows a diffuse B-cell population, an abnormal finding.
Figure 3
Figure 3. White arrow points to mitotic figure and immediately at 10:00 adjacent can be seen a neoplastic B-cell.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Diagnosis and detection of pancreatic cancer. Chu LC, Goggins MG, Fishman EK. Cancer J. 2017;23:333–342. - PubMed
    1. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: current and evolving therapies. Adamska A, Domenichini A, Falasca M. Int J Mol Sci. 2017;18:1338. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Primary pancreatic lymphoma: what we need to know. Rad N, Khafaf A, Mohammad Alizadeh AH. J Gastrointest Oncol. 2017;8:749–757. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the gastrointestinal tract: a population-based analysis of incidence, geographic distribution, clinicopathologic presentation features, and prognosis. Danish Lymphoma Study Group. d'Amore F, Brincker H, Grønbaek K, et al. J Clin Oncol. 1994;12:1673–1684. - PubMed
    1. Occurrence and prognosis of extranodal lymphomas. Freeman C, Berg JW, Cutler SJ. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/5007387/ Cancer. 1972;29:252–260. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources