From:
dr_bruce_williams
Date: 2002-03-18 22:03:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Pathology on large liver mass
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., "Coppandco" <Coppandco@h...> wrote:
> had posted earlier about the extremely large liver mass (weight
2.3 oz, Height 2.0 cm, Width 4 cm and Length 6 cm) that was removed
from my ferret Slater. The pathology report shows a hepatocellular
carcinoma. Interestingly the right adrenal pathology report is
adrenal cortical carcinoma. My vet has request a review of this
report as we were both surprised that the pathology would show two
different tumor types.
>
> I was wondering if it could be possible that there was two
separate carcinomas and what is the prognosis i.e. recurrence etc for
hepatocellular carcinomas.
Dear Rena:
This can be a very difficult diagnosis just to make by looking at the
slides. In many cases, an adrenocortical carcinoma can look just
like a hepatocellular carcinoma - it is only through specialized
testing such as antibodies directed at certain cellular compounds,
that a true identity can be ascertained.
Last December, I presented a paper on the differentiation of these
two neoplasms with the antibodies against vimentin (which is seen in
adrenocortical tumors) and a hepatocellular antigen (which is only
positive in hepatocellular carcinomas (malignancies arising from the
liver's cells themselves.)
In going over a number of these, the initial diagnoses that I had
made on several of these tumors turned out to be incorrect, and were
corrected only with the use of these cellular markers.
If you can arrange for unstained recuts or paraffin blocks to be sent
to me for analysis, I can run the stains on these and give you the
unequivocal diagnosis in this case.
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams dVM