Pulmonary metastasis of transmissible venereal tumour in a dog: a case report

The transmissible venereal tumour (TVT) is one of the most frequent neoplasias in dogs. This tumour has specific characteristics, and it is exclusively of canines. Its transmission occurs through viable neoplastic cell transplantation when in contact with mucosa or unhealthy skin and rarely metastasise. This paper aims to report a rare presentation of pulmonary metastasis of widespread transmissible venereal tumours in a Blue Heeler dog. The patient was cachectic, dyspnoeic, and dehydrated and had multiple skin and pharynx nodulations. The cytology of all cutaneous nodulations showed round vacuolated cells with large eccentric nuclei and loose chromatin, which is compatible with TVT’s microscopic characteristics. Owing to the clinical evolution and reserved prognosis, the patient was euthanized. Necroscopy revealed a mass in the right pulmonary caudal lobe. The mass showed the same histopathologic characteristic of the others: not encapsulated infiltrative neoplastic proliferation of round vacuolated cells. The atypical manifestation of cutaneous metastasis and mainly pulmonary metastasis, in this case, denote the importance of TVT inclusion as a differential in cutaneous neoplasia, even if they show distant organ metastasis. Therefore, it emphasised the importance of cytology and histology in the diagnosis of nodular affections.

Treatment and Regression of Transmissible Venearal Tumour in Dogs

Antimicrobial resistance threatens the effective treatment of vast range of bacterial, fungi and viral diseases. Transmissible venereal tumour (TVT) is one of the highly contagious tumour in dogs commonly affecting sexually active stud and bitches. The disease was observed in a male and female Alsatian of about 3 years of age. Both dogs were sexually active and are utilized for breeding purposes. Samples were collected from the TVT growth on both the female and male genitalia. The samples were subjected to cytology and confirmatory diagnosis was made on the gross appearance of cauliformlike lesion and appearance of roundish cells with multiple vacuoles in the cytoplasm of the TVT tumour cells. Treatment was achieved by 3 doses of Vincristin sulphate injection USP1mg/ml Vinlon TM 1 intravenously through a cannula. There was no report of recrudesce of growth post treatment. Conclusion: TVT appear to exhibit genetic preference for sexually active Alsatian breed of dogs within the age bracket of 3 years and above. Despite the confronting challenge of drug resistance in medicine, intravenous administration of vincristine sulphate has remained efficacious in achieving complete regression of TVT the growth in dogs.

Cytological and Histopathological Characteristics of Canine Transmissible Venereal Tumour in Male and Female Dogs Before and After Vincristine Treatment

Canine transmissible venereal tumour (CTVT) is a neoplasia naturally transmitted in susceptible dogs through coitus. CTVT has a worldwide distribution, with a high prevalence in tropical and sub-tropical urban environments. The study aimed at evaluating CTVT lesions in local breeds of dogs and to assess morphological changes based on sex before and after administration of vincristine sulphate. Clinical and gross morphology, fine needle aspirates cytology (FNAC) and routine histopathology methods were used. Two FNAC and histopathological microscopic slide sections from each of the seven sampled dogs were stained with Giemsa stain and Hematoxylin and Eosin. All dogs were treated with vincristine once weekly over a six weeks period after which clinical morphological and histopathological changes were assessed. Grossly, before treatment the tumour masses appeared irregular, cauliflower like with tendency to bleed, sizes ranged from ≥5cm to ≤2cm with or without metastasis to regional lymph nodes. Cytologically, the tumours had homogenous, sheet-like cellular mass. Cytoplasm with punctate vacuoles, anisokaryosis with anisonucleoliosis and coarse to reticulate nuclear chromatin were seen. Lymphocytoid cell pattern was dominant cell type. Histopathology showed sheets of round cells with nuclear and cytoplasmic variations. Histopathology of the treated dog revealed hyper-cellularity, absence of nucleoli, prominent mitotic figures, reduced cell size and presence of inflammatory cells. There was no difference on the cellular changes after vincristine treatment between female and male dogs. Cytology and histopathology showed that vincristine sulphate suppresses the development of tumour through alteration of cellular morphology with no difference between male and female dogs.

Concurrent Hepatozoonosis and Transmissible Venereal Tumour in a 10-Year Old German Shepherd Dog In Abeokuta, Nigeria

In this study, a case of hepatozoonosis with concurrent TVT unresponsive to chemotherapy in a 10-year old female German shepherd dog treated with Vincristine for 10 weeks at the State Veterinary Clinic, Abeokuta, was referred to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria. Adiagnosis of hepatozoonosis and TVTwere made based on clinical presentations including protruding mass from the vulva, parasitological technique and cytological evaluation of the tumour mass and bone marrow using optical fine needle aspirate. Pathological changes observed in various organs at post-mortem, following euthanasia were cachexia, pale and icteric ocular and oral mucous membranes, enlarged and oedematous lymph nodes. Histopatholgical lesions were round to oval neoplastic cells from the growth observed in the vagina. There were different developmental stages of the merogony of Hepatozoon canisin the bone marrow. We concluded that concurrent hepatozoonosis and TVT and, possibly, the geriatric state of the patient contributed largely to the problem of unresponsiveness to treatment. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report of concurrent infection of canine hepatozoonosis and TVTin Nigeria Keywords: Dog, hepatozoonosis, TVT, unresponsive to chemotherapy

Treatment of Canine Transmissible Venereal Tumour using Different Surgico-chemotherapeutic Protocols

Background: Canine transmissible venereal tumour (CTVT) also known as infectious sarcoma, venereal granuloma, transmissible lymphosarcoma or sticker tumour is usually transmitted through coitus and mainly affects the external genitalia of young sexually matured dogs. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy are considered as effective treatment protocols. Therefore, depending upon the availability present study was designed to investigate the efficacy of different surgico-chemotherapeutic protocols for treatment of canine transmissible venereal tumour.Methods: The study was conducted during January 2018 to July 2018 at the Teaching Veterinary Clinical Complex (TVCC) and Department of Veterinary Surgery and Radiology, College of Veterinary Science and A.H., Anjora, Durg (C.G.) on 18 canines of various breed, irrespective of age, sex and divided into three groups consisting 6 animals in each group. Group A was treated with surgical excision of tumour only where as Group B and Group C were treated with surgical excision of tumour followed by administration of Doxorubicin (30mg/m2) BSA and Vincristine sulphate (0.025 mg/kg) intravenously alongwith DNS at 7th and 14th post-operative days respectively. Different physiological and haemato-biochemical parameters (Hb, PCV, TLC, TPC, DLC, serum glucose, TSP, SUN, SC, ALT, AST and ALP) were recorded preoperatively, postoperatively and after chemotherapy at 10th, 30th and 60th days intervals.Result: The present investigation showed transient changes in physiological and haemato-biochemical parameters before, post surgery and post chemotherapeutic management and was within normal range. Histopathological examination revealed confluent sheet of tumour cells arranged in large round oval or polyhedral shaped distributed in tight clusters or cords. Group A showed mild to moderated reoccurrence while Group B showed minimum reoccurrence. Group C showed no reoccurrence. Thus, surgery combined with vincristine therapy is most effective for treating dogs suffering with transmissible venereal tumour.

Clinico-pathological Diagnosis of Transmissible Venereal Tumour with Hepatozoon canis and Babesia canis Infection in a Chippiparai Dog

Background: The concurrent infection of tick borne haemoprotozoan diseases like B.canis, E.canis and H.canis were commonly recorded in breed dogs. There is paucity in recording the combined haemoprotozoan infection with neoplasms in the native breeds of Tamil Nadu. The current investigation was documented to study the clinico-pathological changes, diagnosis and treatment of the concomitant infection of Hepatozoon canis and Babesia canis along with transmissible venereal tumor in a native dog.Methods: This Clinical investigation was carried out during April’ 2019 for about a month. A male Chippiparai dog was presented to the Veterinary Clinical Complex, VCRI, Tirunelveli with history of mass and bleeding from the genital area. The impression cytology from the mass and the whole blood and serum samples were collected for the laboratory diagnosis.Result: The hematological examination showed marked anaemia and the blood smear revealed the presence of H.canis gamonts in neutrophils and B.canis piroplasm in red bloods cells. The serum biochemical values showed the elevation of alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine and reduction of total protein, albumin. The impression cytology revealed the presence of uniform sheets discrete round cells with punctuate vacuolation in the cytoplasm, confirmed the sexually transmitted venereal tumor.

Living infectious agents with the same organic wall assembly of Precambrian early-life fossils discovered in Canine Transmissible Venereal Tumour and human cancer: Giant viruses or living protocells? Evaluating the effects of an anti-cancer vaccine in stray dogs, while challenging the mysteries around the RNA world

ABSTRACTBackgroundCanine Transmissible Venereal Tumour (CTVT) along with Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour and transmissible leukaemia in Mya Arenaria soft shell-clams are the only examples of contagious cancers occurring in nature. In particular, CTVT is the oldest contagious cancer present in the wild world. The attempts to detect a transmissible virus as a causative agent in these forms of contagious cancer proved conflicting and the current consensus view is that a transformed somatic cell itself is transmitted and starts the tumor in a new animal, as a parasitic allograft. We modify this perception and report for the first time the isolation of an acutely transforming agent from CTVT.MethodsLarge particles were successfully isolated from CTVT specimens through a sucrose gradient, examined at electron microscopy, fully sequenced, used for transformation tests on NIH-3T3 cells and tumorigenic experiments in dogs. A neutralizing therapeutic vaccine was also administered in dogs with natural, not-induced CTVT.ResultsThe particles, isolated from CTVT, are infectious living entities with large dimension. Electron Microscopy reconstructed an organic wall assemblage pattern typical of early life fossils from the Precambrian age, time at which Earth began to form 4.6 billion years ago. Astonishingly, our agents are not fossils, but unicellular organisms biologically active and acutely transforming. They transformed NIH-3T3 cells in vitro and initiated the typical CTVT lesions in healthy dogs, just one week post-infection. Only the fraction containing these infectious entities were able to induce cancer, while a filtered supernatant did not. This ruled out the presence of conventional filterable viruses. RNA sequencing and bioinformatics analyses disclosed a large genome composed by an almost complete Orphan genes dataset, with retro-elements distinct from the host genome. Five doses of a neutralizing vaccine against these oncogenic organisms, drastically reduced the neoplastic mass in dogs with natural, not-induced CTVT. Analogous infectious agents, acutely transforming were also isolated from several human neoplasms.ConclusionsModifying the current believe that contagious cancers are transmitted by a somatic cells allograft, we identified a living agent that infects and starts the typical CTVT in healthy dogs, while its neutralization with a vaccine induces cancer regression in animals with cancer.Significance StatementThese infectious living single-cell agents establish a new family of oncogenic organisms that resist current classifications and affect humans and animals in the wild. While only a dozen of proteins compose a classic virus, these organisms are small infectious cells, but very distinct from somatic eukaryotic cells. The identification of causative unicellular organisms that start cancer in healthy subjects and the possibility to induce cancer regression with a neutralizing vaccine change some perspectives in cancer. The Precambrian features and the genetic composition suggest that these unicellular entities are infectious living RNA protocells that finally gives form to what was considered only a hypothesis drafted by the Nobel laureate Walter Gilmore: the RNA world, the origin of life and RNA protocells.