Follicular dendritic cell tumor of the liver: A clinicopathologic and Epstein-Barr virus study of two cases

Two cases of hepatic follicular dendritic cell (FDC) tumor are described, B oth patients were female, aged 57 and 51 years, They presented with epigast ralgia or abdominal fullness and weight loss, The first patient refused sur gical resection, She developed progressive polyclonal gammopathy and then b ilateral purpura over the legs. Skin biopsy revealed leukocytoclastic vascu litis with granular vascular deposits of IgA and C-3. The second patient ha d marked peripheral blood and tissue eosinophilia. The histological diagnos is was confirmed by positive staining for CD21 and CD23. The stromal lympho cytes were predominantly composed of CD3(+) and CD8(+) cells, lit situ hybr idization for EBER showed a positive nuclear signal in tumor cells but not in inflammatory cells. Polymerase chain reaction amplification for Exon 3 o f the latent membrane protein-1 (LMP-1) gene showed a characteristic 30-bp deletion between nucleotides 168282 and 168253, corresponding to the B95-8 sequence. The unique clinicopathological features of our cases have not bee n reported for FDC tumors before. The clinical significance of the 30-bp de letion in Exon 3 of the LMP-1 gene in FDC tumor of the liver warrants furth er investigation.