Localized Pleural Mesothelioma Causing Cranial Vena Cava Syndrome in a Dog

Abstract

A 9-year-old female crossbred dog was presented to the Hospital Universitario Veterinario Rof Codina (Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Lugo, Spain) for acute onset of severe, progressive swelling of the head, neck, and cranial trunk. Survey radiographs and ultrasonography revealed a large, heterogeneous mass in the cranial mediastinum, compressing or growing into a large blood vessel within the cranial mediastinum and displacing the heart dorsocaudally. At postmortem examination, the mass was diagnosed as a large, localized mesothelioma. Localized mesotheliomas are rare neoplasms in dogs but should be considered as a possible differential diagnosis for cranial vena cava syndrome. The anatomic distribution and clinical features of mesothelioma in the present report are similar to other cases in humans.

Intrathoracic Myxosarcoma in a Dog

“…The reported canine cardiac myxosarcoma (Machida et al, 2003b) and the lesion in the present case were also S-100 negative. Absence of expression of epithelial markers excludes the possibility of a mesothelioma (Abu Arab et al, 2009;Espino et al, 2010).…”

Using of immunocytochemistry in differential diagnosis of neoplasms of serosal cavities in dogs

“…In numerous researches conducted on both canine and human cases, immunohistochemistry performed on tissue samples and immunocytochemistry performed on cellular samples of mesotheliomas have revealed constant expression of intermediate filaments typical for both epithelial and mesenchymal cells (Hurlimann 1994, Höinghaus et al 2008, Espino et al 2010, Gumber et al 2011, Vascellari et al 2011. However, simple co-expression of these two intermediate filaments cannot be used as a marker of neoplastic mesothelial cells, since co-expression of cytokeratin and vimentin in the same cells has been detected also in other types of tumors, for example synovial sarcomas, haemangiosarcomas, mammary gland carcinomas (Desnoyers et al 1990, Rabanal andElse 1994).…”

Pathology in Practice

“…7 In humans, treatment is often palliative because of the diffuse nature of the disease. 1 Histologically, mesotheliomas are broadly separated into 3 categories: epithelial, sarcomatoid, and biphasic (the latter illustrated by the case described in this report); however, numerous subcategories are also described. The disease in dogs has a similar progression.…”