Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How common is hidden feline leukemia virus in cats with lymphoma
By Stützer, Bianca et al.·Published in Journal of feline medicine and surgery·2011·Clinic of Small Animal Medicine, Germany·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Incidence of persistent viraemia and latent feline leukaemia virus infection in cats with lymphoma.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A group of cats with lymphoma (a type of cancer) was tested for feline leukemia virus (FeLV) to see if it was causing their illness. Out of 77 cats, 61 tested negative for the virus, and none of these antigen-negative cats showed signs of a hidden FeLV infection. Only about 21% of the cats with lymphoma had detectable FeLV in their blood. This suggests that other factors, rather than FeLV, are likely responsible for most cases of lymphoma in cats.
Abstract
In the past, feline leukaemia virus (FeLV) infection, and also latent FeLV infection, were commonly associated with lymphoma and leukaemia. In this study, the prevalence of FeLV provirus in tumour tissue and bone marrow in FeLV antigen-negative cats with these tumours was assessed. Seventy-seven diseased cats were surveyed (61 antigen-negative, 16 antigen-positive). Blood, bone marrow, and tumour samples were investigated by two polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays detecting deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequences of the long terminal repeats (LTR) and the envelope (env) region of the FeLV genome. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was performed in bone marrow and tumour tissue. None of the antigen-negative cats with lymphoma was detectably infected with latent FeLV. The prevalence of FeLV viraemia in cats with lymphoma was 20.8%. This suggests that causes other than FeLV play a role in tumorigenesis, and that latent FeLV infection is unlikely to be responsible for most feline lymphomas and leukaemias.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21131219/