CASE REPORT article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Oncology in Veterinary Medicine
This article is part of the Research TopicPrecision Diagnosis and Targeted Therapies in Companion Animal OncologyView all 5 articles
DISSEMINATED PRIMARY PULMONARY CARCINOMA PRESENTING AS A CHRONIC ENTEROPATHY IN A DOG
Provisionally accepted
- Colorado State University, Fort Collins, United States
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A 10-year-old male castrated, mixed-breed dog presented with a four-month history of enteropathy unresponsive to standard treatment. Initial bloodwork ruled out non-gastrointestinal illness and abdominal ultrasound revealed stratified segmental small intestinal muscularis thickening. Gastrointestinal endoscopy and biopsy identified duodenal carcinoma with lymphatic infiltration. Due to the absence of an identified gross lesion, nascent primary duodenal carcinoma was suspected. The dog presented 29 days later for acute worsening of signs, development of neoplastic peritoneal effusion and protein-losing enteropathy. Thoracic radiographs identified pulmonary nodules consistent with carcinoma on cytology. Humane euthanasia was elected two days later with necropsy identifying disseminated neoplastic emboli and marked lipogranulomatous lymphangitis. Strong positive nuclear labelling for thyroid transcription factor-1 of the pulmonary neoplasm and neoplastic cells within the small intestinal lymphatics of the original biopsy were consistent with disseminated primary pulmonary carcinoma (PPC). This is the first report describing disseminated PPC presenting primarily with gastrointestinal signs.
Keywords: Lipogranulomatous lymphangitis, Carcinoma, Thyroid transcription factor (TTF-1), Duodenum, Protein-losing enteropathy (PLE), Neoplasia, Peritoneal effusion, Intestinal thickness
Received: 15 Jun 2025; Accepted: 24 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bandara, Shropshire, Hughes and Burton. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yuvani Bandara
Jenna Hart Burton
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