Neovascularization in canine mammary carcinoma – a case report

The frequency of mammary tumors in canines is three times higher than in women. Contrast enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) is a noninvasive clinical method, that uses special contrast agents (CAs), their role being to layout the microvasculature of different lesions. The aim of this particular method, in this case, was to establish if we can evaluate the malignancy of a mass, given the fact that neovascularization is a malignancy marker. The case is represented by a Silky Terrier breed female dog, 5 years old, that was presented initially with an enlarged polycystic mammary gland and a nervous lactation. The female was initially diagnosed with polycystic mastosis. After 2 more months the mass became denser and enlarged. Before the ovariohisterectomy and unilateral mastectomy surgeries have taken place, a B-Mode standard ultrasound, CEUS and a pulmonary X-ray were performed. Our results integrate this case in “fast in” and “slow in” (type 2 curve). The histological diagnosis was established as a simple cystic papillary carcinoma with a malignancy grade 2. The mean value of the MVD was 13.75 which is a low MVD. We cannot determine a correlation between CEUS and a tumor’s malignancy, and so further studies are needed.

Expression of tpo mRNA in thyroid tumors: quantitiative PCR analysis and correlation with alterations of ret, Braf , ras and pax8 genes

Immunocytochemistry (ICC) of thyroid peroxidase (TPO) using the monoclonal antibody MoAb47 has been used as malignancy marker on thyroid fine needle aspiration. However, little is known about the fate of TPO in thyroid carcinoma. We performed a qualitative PCR (Q-PCR) analysis to measure the expression of variants of tpo mRNA in 13 normal tissue samples, 30 benign tumors (BT), 21 follicular carcinomas (FC), 20 classical papillary carcinomas (PCc), 12 follicular variants of papillary carcinomas (PCfv) and nine oncocytic carcinomas (OC). We also studied mutations involving the ras, Braf, ret or pax8 genes. Results of Q-PCR were closely correlated with those of ICC (P < 0.0001; R = 0.59) and showed that overall tpo expression was lower in all carcinomas than in normal and BT (P < 0.05). The ratio tpo2 or tpo3 to tpo1 was inversed in follicular tumors. Genetic mutations were observed in 90% of PCc, 61.9% of FC, 41.7% of PCfv, 0% of OC and 10% in BT. pax8-ppar γ1 rearrangement was correlated with qualitative changes in tpo mRNA (P < 0.01). These results confirmed the decrease of TPO expression in 97% of thyroid carcinomas regardless of histological type and the overexpression of shorter splice variants in follicular tumors. Both reduction in quantity of TPO and impairment of its maturation process could account for the atypical immunohistochemical reaction of MoAb47 with TPO.