Simultaneous relapse of liver cell carcinoma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in the liver. Report of a case with diagnosis by ultrasonically guided fine needle aspiration biopsy.

A 50-year-old man was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) in 1980; he was treated with chemotherapy and achieved complete remission. Six years later he reported upper abdominal pain. Ultrasound (US) showed a 3-cm mass in the right lobe of the liver. Needle aspiration showed hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The patient was treated with radical resection of the tumor. Three years later (June 1989), abdominal US showed two lesions in the right lobe of the liver. Needle aspiration and tissue core biopsy showed NHL in one lesion and HCC in the other. The lymphomatous lesion resolved after chemotherapy. The patient died 30 months later (January 1992) from a gastrointestinal hemorrhage; the NHL was in complete remission. This case of the simultaneous presence of HCC and hepatic lymphoma is, to our knowledge, the first diagnosed in vivo.