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Diagnosis | Adenocarcinoma of the mammary gland

Lab Animal volume 38, pages 290–291 (2009)Cite this article

Given the age of the rat, the primary differential diagnoses we considered for this mass were abscess and granuloma. But because we saw serosanguineous fluid and not purulent or caseous exudate in the cystic spaces of the mass during necropsy, we changed our presumptive diagnosis to neoplasia.

We postulated that the neoplasm might be of mammary gland, salivary gland or Zymbal gland origin. Mammary gland neoplasms in male rats have never been identified at the International Institute of Biotechnology and Toxicology or at the National Institute of Nutrition (Hyderabad, India), the supplier for our breeding stock. Salivary gland and Zymbal gland neoplasms in either gender of any age are also rare at these institutions. The salivary glands and Zymbal glands were intact upon gross examination; the salivary glands were histologically normal. We did not evaluate the Zymbal glands microscopically, but the histological features of the mass were not suggestive of a sebaceous origin such as the Zymbal gland. Because mammary gland tumors are one of the most common tumors in most strains of aging rats1, we considered mammary gland neoplasia to be the most likely diagnosis, even though the affected rat was only 37 weeks old and male.

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Figure 4: Immunohistochemical staining of the neoplasm.

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Diagnosis | Adenocarcinoma of the mammary gland. Lab Anim 38, 290–291 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/laban0909-290

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