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Diagnosis | Primary femoral osteosarcoma with metastases

Lab Animal volume 40, pages 40–41 (2011)Cite this article

The clinical and radiographic impression of this rabbit's disease was either granulomatous or fungal disease or osteosarcoma. Because osteosarcomas are rare in rabbits, especially osteosarcomas of the long bones, granulomatous disease was considered most likely.

Upon microscopic examination of affected organs, we observed that the right proximal femur was expanded and effaced by a large, poorly demarcated, moderately cellular, lobulated mass composed of pleomorphic, spindle to stellate cells with abundant extracellular osteoid seams showing mineralization and forming primitive bony trabeculae. The spindle-shaped cells and associated production of an osteoid matrix are characteristic of osteosarcoma. The neoplastic cells had large oval vesicular nuclei with a single small nucleolus and scant amphophilic cytoplasm. Mitoses were infrequent (two per 10× high-power field). Undifferentiated neoplastic cells were more prominent at the periphery of the tumor, and osteoid production was more prominent centrally.

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Figure 4: The dissected right femur of the rabbit shown in Figure 2.
Figure 5: Low-power photomicrograph of section of lung shown in Figure 3.
Figure 6: High-power photomicrograph of a pulmonary nodule in Figure 5.

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Diagnosis | Primary femoral osteosarcoma with metastases. Lab Anim 40, 40–41 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/laban0211-40

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