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Diagnosis | Granulosa cell tumor of the ovary

Lab Animal volume 40, pages 244–245 (2011)Cite this article

Ovarian tumors are not widely reported in reptiles, but among reptilian species, they are more common in lizards and snakes, rare in chelonians and unreported in crocodilians1,2,3,4,5,6. They are more common in lizards than in snakes, except for granulosa cell tumors2,3,6. To date, ten granulosa cell tumors have been reported in snakes2,3,7,8,9. Eight of these were in colubrid snakes: four garter snakes, Thamnophis sirtalis2,8,9; two vipers (an asiatic cobra Naja naja9 and an unidentified viper2); one gopher snake, Pituophis catenifer9; and one unidentified colubrid2. The remaining two snakes were not identified3,7.

Most of the granulosa cell tumors described in snakes are classified as benign on the basis of histological criteria used to classify mammalian granulosa cell tumors (e.g., round granulosa-like cells arranged in nests, perivascular rosettes, cystic formations and occasional Call-Exner bodies) or behavior (e.g., no metastases, long-term survival of snake after tumor removal)2. One malignant ovarian tumor in a Peruvian red-tail boa constrictor (Boa constrictor ortoni) associated with sudden death and metastases was described as “an undifferentiated carcinoma with characteristics of a granulosa cell tumor”10. One snake granulosa cell tumor was associated with renal metastasis8. In our case, the computed tomography scan excluded the presence of visible metastases and, at necropsy, metastases were not seen. But the presence of neoplastic cells within the lumens of several blood vessels suggests that the neoplasm may have already microscopically metastasized to other organs.

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Figure 4: Low-power photomicrograph of granulosa cell tumor from the corn snake in Figure 1.
Figure 5: Intermediate-power photomicrograph of neoplastic granulosa cells from Figure 4.
Figure 6: High-power photomicrograph of neoplastic granulosa cells from Figure 4.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Olivier Taeymans, DVM, PhD, DipECVDI, at Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine for his advice and interpretation of radiographs and computed tomography scans and Raffaele Melidone, Dr Med Vet, in the Department of Veterinary Pathology, Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine for his helpful advice in the histopathological evaluation.

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Diagnosis | Granulosa cell tumor of the ovary. Lab Anim 40, 244–245 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/laban0811-244

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