Co-existence of 2 malignant tumors in a dog

He was in a bad general condition with an advanced dehydration and what was worse with advanced neurological signs such as: hyperexcitability, circling motions, tilted head.

A closer look was possible after appropriate sedation and anesthesia. The view was typical for a oral fibrous sarcoma, with mobile teeth and bone resorption, in situ enlarged alveolar crest with specific nodular sarcomatos lesions, that ulcerate and bleed quite easily, see the occlusal view in Fig. 1 and vestibular view in Fig. 2
 

Based on this suspicion we decided to take a wedge biopsy from 2 separate spots, Fig. 3 by means of a radiosurgical unit, and forwarded to pathology for confirmation of the diagnosis.

The radiological diagnosis based on the retroalveolar X-rays we took was not conclusive for fibro-sarcoma since the bone resorption and rarefaction looked like in an advanced periodontal disease and not like in a tumor, see Fig. 4.

Since the owners insisted on early euthanasia which I consider the appropriate decision considering the dog was not feeding at all, and was in a miserable state, after which we forwarded the body to pathology.

The gross necropsy has shown signs of a mesenchymal tumor with lymphocytic infiltration and osteolysis of the alveolar bone in the affected area of the mandible confirming an undifferentiated sarcoma.
 

The surprise was however that most of the inner organs presented modifications (hyperplasia and hypertrophy) and a diffuse lymphocytic tumoral infiltrate.

Especially the lymph nodes were enlarged, the axillary and aortic nodes substantially with tumoral infiltrate. This was a confirmation of malignant lymphoma, multifocal and multicentric form, in a stage V with a substage b, which is the most advanced form.

Unfortunately since these tumors are frequent at an early age such as here (5 years old) when the cell metabolism and mitotic activity is increased (maximum) the evolution is rarely surprised in an early enough stage to apply chemotherapy.

Malignant lymphomas are responding quite well to chemotherapy when applied at an early stage, combined or not with surgical procedures.
 

The bad news is that Rudi was euthanized as mentioned before, but the same day the owners decided to adopt our 4,5 years old, female, abandoned Airdale Terrier, Amiga, thus closing an interesting chapter of "fate and destiny”.

DDr. Camil Stoian PhD

www.tierzahnarzt.at