Mammary Gland Neoplasia in the Cow - Veterinary Pathology

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508 POVEY/OSBORNE More centrally there were noticeably fewer giant cells, and those present had fewer nuclei. The cell type was more typically spindle shaped and there was a definite tendency for streaming and whorling patterns to be formed (Fig. 4, 5). Mitotic figures were more frequent. At the edge of the central cavity with blood clots and tissue debris there was disruption of vessel walls with haemorrhage. In other vessels there were thrombi with numerous white cells many of which were eosinophils. The more nearly normal udder was a recently active gland beginning to involute. Adjacent to the tumour, although well separated by collagenous tissue, there was pressure collapse of the acini. There were some foci of plasma cells, neutrophils, and eosinophils in the interstitium. The tumour was negative for alkaline phosphatase when stained by GOMORI’S modified method, whereas apparently normal udders gave a positive reaction. Myoepithelial cells are particularly rich in this enzyme13. The tumour’s cell type and its pattern of growth, particularly as seen in the deeper parts with the collagenous and reticulin networks, were considered typical of a fibroblastic neoplasm. In view of its cellularity, and peripherally more disorganised structure, with the numerous giant cells, it was classified as a fibrosarcoma rather than a fibroma, although there was no evidence of any metastasis in the supramammary lymph nodes, or elsewhere. The possibility of the lesion being basically an infective granuloma was considered, but neither bacterium, yeast, nor fungus, was found in the histological sections. Discussion KENNY27, in a complete account of a primary adenocarcinoma of a bovine udder, considered the rarity of neoplasia of the mammary gland in the cow difficult to explain, ‘especially when one considers the demands which are made on this organ by present-day intensive methods of milk production, its proneness to chronic mastitis, and the fact that the dairy cow, unlike the majority of bovines is as a rule allowed to live well beyond what is described as the ‘cancer age”. ANDER- SON and JARRETT~ suggested, however, that as in women lactation is known to protect against mammary neoplasia, the almost constant lactation in cows may afford similar protection. FIDLER, ABT, and BRODEY’S postulated that excessive progesterone stimulation with recurrent milk retention be the key to the high incidence of mammary neoplasia in the bitch. RENK~~ described how cysts of various sizes could be found in the glandular tissue in cases of chronic bovine mastitis, which he likened to ‘mastopathia cystica’ in man. In 1 case he described such change proceeding to neoplasia in the form of a papillary cyst-adenoma. ROTHENBACHERS6 suspected that some cases which were diagnosed as chronic bovine mastitis may have been neoplastic in nature. Pure fibrosarcoma of the mammary gland, in the dog at least, is much less common than mixed or glandular tumours. Thus SMITH and JONES.~~ in their compilation of tumours from various surveys included 934 canine mammary tumours of which only 19 were fibromata or fibrosarcomata. In the cow, as far as we are aware, apart from intercanalicular fibromatad1 and cisternal fibrous polyps25, there Downloaded from vet.sagepub.com by guest on January 21, 2014
Mammary Gland Neoplasia in the Cow 509 is only HOFMEYR’S report?’ of a ‘spindle-cell sarcoma’ in a Jersey cow which involved much of the left side of the udder, was some 22 cm in diameter, and had a necrotic centre. This tumour HOFMEYR successfully removed by complete mastectomy. A noteworthy feature of this present fibrosarcoma was the extremely high incidence of multinucleate giant cells. € 3 0 classifies ~ ~ ~ giant cells into 3 types: tumour giant cells ; foreign-body giant cells, characterised by being phagocytic; and a miscellaneous group including the Reed-Sternberg cell of Hodgkin’s disease in man. In foreign-body multinucleate cells, the nuclei tend to form a peripheral palisade, whereas in the tumour giant cell, as in the above case, the nuclei are either diffuse within the cytoplasm or tend to aggregate centrally. Giant cells can occur in virtually any type of tumour, but EvA~sl~, in the case of human fibrosarcomata at least, states that although multinucleated cells may be found they are not a spectacular feature, and indeed Srou~38 considers them exceedingly uncommon. WILL IS^^ on the other hand writes that the more undifferentiated fibrosarcomata often include many giant and multinucleated tumour cells. We have reviewed 50 tumours diagnosed as fibrosarcoma at this school over the past 10 years, and in only 2-1 dog (a metastatic fibrosarcoma in the liver), and 1 horse (a sub-cutaneous neoplasm) were giant cells easily found. Giant cells were not mentioned in the mammary sarcoma reported by HOFMEYR~~. A neoplasm where multinucleated giant cells are a spectacular feature is the osteoclastoma or giant-cell tumour of bone. In gross and macroscopic appearance JAFFE’SZ3 account of this tumour indicates a fairly close similarity to the tumour presently described. NIELSEN~~ described a giant-cell tumour of the fore-leg in a cat. This tumour was extraskeletal and was presumed to have originated in the tendons or tendon sheaths. The type of giant cell and their distribution in a stroma which appeared to be of atypical fibroblasts arranged in a sarcomatous pattern, with evidence that these fibroblasts were in fact the precursors of the giant cells, is a picture bearing striking resemblance to the case here described. NIELSEN~I also observed that some giant cells had a darker cytoplasm and smaller hyperchromatic nuclei. This we also saw (Fig. 3). It is debatable whether these were merely older, pyknotic, forms of tumour giant cells or phagocytic foreign body giant cells of reticuloendothelial origin. The possible phagocytic property of many of the giant cells in our case as indicated by vacuolation with, in some cases, vacuoles containing stainable material is paralleled by the condition of man described by JAFFE~~ as nodular tenosynovitis. In this lesion, which JAFFE considers to represent an inflammatory reaction rather than a true neoplastic change, multinucleate giant cells able to phagocytose haemosiderin and lipid are a feature. These lesions apparently commonly arise from tendon sheaths and/or the fascia1 and ligamentous tissues adjacent to them. A similar condition has been described in the horse129 34. PLUMMER~~ in his review of tumours classified 2 bovine specimens as ‘giant-cell sarcomas’. One involved rib, pleura, lung, and bronchial lymph nodes. No information was available on the location of the other. Multinucleate giant cells have been seen in those sarcomas of the mammary gland in the bitch which appear to be related to osteosarcomas, and may be of myoepithelial originlo. No bone or cartilage element was found in this reported case and there was no histochemical evidence for the presence of myoepithelial cells in the tumourous tissue. Downloaded from vet.sagepub.com by guest on January 21, 2014
Page 1 and 2: Pathologia Veterinaria Online http:
Page 3 and 4: uble 1. Reports of primary mammary
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Page 7: Fig. 4. Pericentral area of tumour
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Mammary Gland Neoplasia in the Cow - Veterinary Pathology

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