Neoplasms in domestic hamsters in Southern Brazil: epidemiological and pathological aspects of 40 cases1

Abstract

Although neoplasms are commonly reported in domestic hamsters, retrospective studies approaching spontaneous tumors with data regarding epidemiological findings are scarce. The present study aimed to describe the epidemiological and pathological findings of 40 cases of tumors in domestic hamsters diagnosed in a veterinary pathology laboratory in Southern Brazil from 2002 to 2019. Chinese hamster (Cricetulus griseus) was the most commonly affected species (16/40), followed by Djungarian hamster (Phodopus sungorus, 11/40) and Syrian hamster (Mesocricetus auratus, 4/40). Among the cases, 57.5% were females (23/40), while 42.5% were males (17/40). The affected hamsters’ median age was of 14-months old, with an age range of 8- to 36-months old. Twenty-four cases were assessed as anatomopathological samples (biopsies), while 16 were composed of carcasses submitted to postmortem examination, and, therefore, the neoplasm was related to the cause of death. The integumentary system was frequently affected (60%, 24/40), followed by the female reproductive tract (22.5%, 9/40), hematopoietic system (10%, 4/40), digestive tract (5%, 2/40), and endocrine system (2.5%, 1/40). The most frequent neoplasm was squamous cell carcinoma (35%, 14/40), mostly on the lip/nasal region (50%, 7/14). Other tumors included fibrosarcoma (10%, 4/40), lymphoma (10%, 4/40), mammary cystadenoma (10%, 4/40), apocrine sweat gland adenoma (7.5%, 3/40), hemangiosarcoma (5%, 2/40), leiomyosarcoma (5%, 2/40), and granulosa ovarian cell tumor (5%, 2/40). The five remaining cases occurred individually and were composed of hepatoid gland adenoma, solid thyroid carcinoma, cutaneous melanoma, ovarian teratoma, and cutaneous trichoblastoma. Neoplasms were identified as an important cause of death and major reason to perform biopsy in domestic hamsters in Southern Brazil.

Clinical, pathological and immunohistochemical characterization of spontaneous neoplasms in pet rodents in Northeastern Brazil

“…were similarly impacted. Our results also align with other studies where cutaneous neoplasms were the most diagnosed (Kondo et al 2008b, Wentz et al 2020, Rother et al 2021. In a recent study (Dobromylskyj et al 2023), trichofolliculoma was the most frequently diagnosed neoplasm in guinea pigs.…”

“…Serial studies of spontaneous neoplasms in pet rodents are still scarce, and most of them focus on hamster species (Kondo et al 2008b, Kondo et al 2009, Yoshimura et al 2015, Wentz et al 2020, Rother et al 2021. Other studies focus on mammary tumors of guinea pigs (Suarez-Bonnet et al 2010) and neoplasms of only rats and mice (Trotte et al 2008(Trotte et al , 2010.…”

“…To date, there is only one retrospective study in Brazil on naturally occurring neoplasms of pet rodent species (Wentz et al 2020). Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe the gross, histopathological, and immunohistochemical features of spontaneous neoplasms of hamsters, rats, guinea pigs, and mice kept as pets in Northeastern Brazil.…”

Myxosarkom in der Halsregion eines Teddy-Hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus)

“…Grundsätzlich sollten Entzündungsprozesse, wie Abszesse und Granulome, von neoplastischen Geschehen abgegrenzt werden. In dieser Lokalisation muss auch an einen vergrößerten Lymphknoten gedacht werden, da auch das Lymphom bei Syrischen Hamstern vermehrt vorkommt und sich dieses im Bereich von Kopf und Hals präsentieren kann [17,22]. Darüber hinaus kommt es bei Vergesellschaftung von Hamstern, für die grundsätzlich Einzelhaltung empfohlen wird, häufig zu Bissverletzungen mit nachfolgender Abszessbildung oder Cellulitis [21].…”

Reporte de caso: Tumor de células en forma de huso en un canino (fibrosarcoma)

“…Entre los diagnósticos diferenciales se incluyeron fibrosarcomas, leiomiosarcoma y diferentes sarcomas de tejidos blandos, como los tumores de nervios periféricos malignos. En el presente caso, la apariencia macroscópica de la masa concuerda con lo reportado por Wentz et al (2020), quienes caracterizaban a los fibrosarcomas por ser masas cutáneas, demarcadas, con nódulos firmes a duros y con áreas focales de ulceración superficial; de igual forma, otros autores afirman que, macroscópicamente, el fibrosarcoma se caracteriza por ser una masa única y unilateral, firme, de color blanco, gris o rosa, con una superficie lisa y sésil que rara vez se ulcera (Casaro et al 2020), una descripción similar a la masa de consistencia firme en la región cervical dorsal subcutánea del paciente. Asimismo, se realizó histopatología de la masa y la descripción histopatológica de la neoplasia podría corresponder a un fibrosarcoma, lo que se confirmó mediante la histoquímica con la Tricrómica de Masson (Carneiro et al 2020).…”