Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Dog with breathing trouble found to have large chest mass with mucin
By Boyd, Susan P et al.·Published in Veterinary clinical pathology·2005·Department of Pathology, United Kingdom·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Matrix "blues": clue to a cranial thoracic mass in a dog.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A 5-year-old male Italian Spinone was brought to the vet because he was having severe breathing problems and coughing. X-rays showed a large mass in his chest, and tests revealed it was a type of cancer called myxoid liposarcoma, which is rare in dogs. Unfortunately, the mass was too large to be surgically removed, and the decision was made to euthanize him to prevent further suffering. This case highlights the importance of recognizing specific cell types in diagnosing certain cancers in pets.
People also search for: dog coughing and breathing problems · myxoid liposarcoma in dogs · Italian Spinone cancer symptoms
Abstract
A 5-year-old, intact male Italian Spinone dog was presented for progressive, severe dyspnea and coughing. Thoracic radiographs revealed a large mass in the right cranial thorax. Fine needle aspiration of the mass yielded a highly cellular sample containing dense clumps of oval to spindle-shaped mesenchymal cells with distinct intracytoplasmic vacuolation, consistent with lipoblasts and lipocytes. Cell clusters were associated with abundant eosinophilic matrix, which was identified as mucin, based on Alcian blue staining. At exploratory thoracotomy, the mass was found to be nonresectable, and the dog was euthanized. Histologic sections of the multilobular mass had discrete regions of variable cellular differentiation, including highly cellular areas of pleomorphic cells, areas of spindle cells and lipoblasts in a myxoid background, and areas of well-differentiated lipogenic cells. The histologic diagnosis was myxoid liposarcoma. The thoracic cavity is a rare site for liposarcoma in the dog. The cytologic features of lipoblasts together with a mucopolysaccharide matrix were useful for distinguishing the myxoid variant of liposarcoma from other forms of liposarcoma and myxoid sarcomas.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16134077/