Skip to content
Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Disseminated lymphoma in an 11-year-old FS DSH cat: Our Case Of The Month January 2012

Case Of the Month

Disseminated lymphoma in an 11-year-old FS DSH cat: Our Case Of The Month January 2012

Lymphoma Does What Lymphoma Does.

Lymphoma Does What Lymphoma Does.

Anorexia, weight loss, “not doin’ right” are the usual signs in cats that make us suspect lymphoma or similar neoplasia but have us hope for pancreatitis, biliary disease, obstructive urolithiasis, orthopedic disease and other treatable disease with similar vague signs. However, when the uncontrolled cell growth of lymphoma strikes and causes every affected organ to “burst at the seams,” this is what the organs under the probe present like which we then sample accordingly. Dr, Marty Henderson of www.sonovet.us teams up with the amazing Claudia Barton DACVIM (Oncology) for the lymphoma diagnosis in this cat for the January, 2012 SonoPath Case of the month.

Sonogram (Liver): Lizzie

History: A 11-year-old female neutered DSH was presented with a history of anorexia and weight loss. The only abnormality on urinalysis is an inappropriate urine specific gravity ( 1.016). Azotemia is present on serum biochemistry.

Outcome

No further outcome.

Comments

(Barton DACVIM): This cat clearly has disseminated lymphoma in all areas sampled, and one would presume that the other organs that were abnormal on the sonogram are also affected. Palliative prednisone or a chemotherapy protocol would be the treatment for this tumor, but the prognosis is very guarded to poor given the renal involvement. Many renal lymphomas in the cat spread fairly rapidly to the CNS, and thus lomustine/prednisolone might be a reasonable chemotherapy choice. Even with a ‘good’ response to chemotherapy, one would expect that remission duration would be 6 months or less, given the propensity of large-cell lymphoma in the cat to become chemotherapy drug resistant. The presence of numerous eosinophils among the neoplastic lymphocytes is interesting; it is likely that the lymphoid tumor cells are synthesizing interleukin 5. IL-5 is a key player in the coordination and orchestration of eosinophil-based inflammatory processes. There are occasional lymphomas in the cat in which the tumor cells apparently produce this cytokine, since the tumor tissue contains a very large number of eosinophils.

Clinical Differential Diagnosis

(Lobetti DECVIM http://www.sonopath.com/specialists_lobetti.asp):

Anorexia/weight loss – renal/hepatic/cardiac/pancreatitic disease, pyothorax, neoplasia, hyperthyroidism
Renal disease – chronic kidney disease, neoplasia, pyelonephritis, hydronephrosis, renoliths, ureteroliths

Sampling

The right kidney and the liver were aspirated and slides are submitted for cytology review.

Sonographic Differential Diagnosis

(Henderson DVM): Kidney Mass – the findings are severe -DDx: primary renal carcinoma, primary renal TCC, renal lymphosarcoma – may appear as diffuse disease or focal mass. Less likely: renal malignant histiocytosis or mastocytosis, malignant osteosarcoma, hemangiosarcoma .
2) Liver – the findings are moderately-severe – DDx:
a) Hepatic lipidosis / Cholangiohepatitis
b) Infiltrative neoplasia (lymphoma – probable in this case)
c) Chronic vs. Acute hepatitis or cholangiohepatitis (bacterial vs. sterile vs. toxin)
3) Lymph nodes – the findings are moderate – DDx: infiltrative neoplasia is likely vs. reaction
Due to the involvement of the liver, gastrointestinal tract, and multiple enlarged lymph nodes, lymphosarcoma is a highly likely.

Image Interpretation

(Henderson DVM, Lindquist DABVP)

Video

Patient Information

Gender : Female, Spayed
Species : Feline
Status : Complete

History

  • Anorexia
  • Weight Loss

Images

COM_1201_01COM_1201_03COM_1201_04COM_1201_05COM_1201_09COM_1201_11COM_1201_13