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Peer-reviewed veterinary case report

Conjunctival lymphoma: immunophenotype and outcome in five dogs and three cats.

Journal:
Veterinary ophthalmology
Year:
2014
Authors:
McCowan, Christina et al.
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne Veterinary Clinical Centre · Australia

Plain-English summary

This study looked at eight pets—five dogs and three cats—who had lymphoma (a type of cancer) affecting their eyes. All the pets seemed healthy at first, but they were brought in because of eye problems. While one dog had swollen lymph nodes, the others had no signs of illness beyond their eye issues. The dogs had a specific type of T-cell tumors, while the cats had B-cell tumors. Unfortunately, three of the dogs were put to sleep within six months due to worsening health, but the other two were doing well. Among the cats, two survived well after their diagnosis, while one cat passed away, possibly due to unrelated issues.

Abstract

Conjunctival lymphoma is well documented in the medical literature, but veterinary reports are few. We report five cases of canine lymphoma, and three of feline in which the presenting sign was conjunctival involvement. All animals were in apparently good health at the time of presentation, and attended the referring clinic because of conjunctival disease. One dog showed generalized lymphadenopathy at presentation, although the ocular lesion was the reason for consultation, but all other patients were well with no detectable disease beyond the eye. All cats were presented for their ocular disease. All dogs were confirmed to have T-cell tumors, although the histological appearance of these was variable. In contrast, all cats had B-cell tumors. Referring clinicians and owners were contacted for follow-up information. Three dogs had been euthanased within 6 months of diagnosis for deterioration of general health. The remaining two were alive and showed no signs of systemic disease. Two cats had good survival following diagnosis, the other died of lesions that may not be related.

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Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23910215/