Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Dog with thymic cyst turned cancer and spread to lungs
By Levien, A S et al.·Published in The Journal of small animal practice·2010·Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Transformation of a thymic branchial cyst to a carcinoma with pulmonary metastasis in a dog.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A 9-year-old female neutered Dalmatian was brought to the vet for sudden breathing problems. Tests showed a large mass in her chest and fluid around her lungs, which led to surgery. The mass was found to be a thymic branchial cyst that had turned into cancer, and it had spread to her lungs. Although she initially seemed to recover after surgery, she developed a severe infection and sadly passed away eight days later.
People also search for: dog breathing problems · Dalmatian lung cancer · thymic branchial cyst treatment · dog surgery recovery issues
Abstract
A 9-year-old, female neutered Dalmatian was evaluated for acute onset of dyspnoea. Thoracocentesis on presentation yielded 1300 ml sanguineous fluid, while thoracic radiology and ultrasonography showed a mixed-echoic cavitary cranial mediastinal mass, sternal lymph node enlargement and pleural effusion. Surgical exploration of the thorax revealed a multi-lobulated red/brown cranial mediastinal mass and multiple similarly coloured ovoid nodules within several lung lobes. Histopathology revealed thymic branchial cysts with neoplastic transformation and examination of the lung was consistent with metastasis. Despite initially recovering well, acute sepsis and pyothorax resulted in cardiac arrest 8 days postoperatively. This is the first veterinary report of neoplastic transformation of a thymic branchial cyst with pulmonary metastasis.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20973790/