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Peer-reviewed veterinary case report

Young Maine coon cat with aggressive muscle tumor and surgery outcome

By Miller, Andrew D et al.·Published in Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association·2009·Department of Biomedical Sciences, United States·View original on PubMed

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Original publication title: Embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma in a young Maine coon cat.

Species:
cat

Plain-English summary

A 14-month-old Maine coon cat was diagnosed with a rare type of tumor called embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma, located in the abdominal muscle. The cat underwent surgery to remove the tumor, and initially, there were no signs of the disease spreading. Unfortunately, within seven months, the cat developed lung metastasis and passed away. This case suggests that, similar to humans, additional treatments like chemotherapy might be beneficial after surgery to help prevent the cancer from returning or spreading.

People also search for: Maine coon cat tumor treatment · cat abdominal tumor surgery · embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma in cats

Abstract

Embryonal rhabdomyosarcomas are uncommon tumors in all domestic species, especially cats. A 14-month-old Maine coon was diagnosed with an embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma in the rectus abdominus muscle, which was treated with complete surgical excision. Although no clinical progression was noted after surgery, the cat succumbed to pulmonary metastasis within 7 months. The histological diagnosis was embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (myotubular subtype). This category of striated muscle tumors is thought to have a more aggressive clinical course. The rapid demise of this cat even with no clinical or histological evidence of metastasis at the time of resection may indicate that, as in human medicine, adjuvant chemotherapy should be considered in conjunction with early surgical excision in preventing disease progression.

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Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19122064/