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Centroblastic lymphoma (CBL) is the most common type of lymphoma in dogs and it usually responds well to chemotherapy. The aim of the study was to provide useful prognostic factors for dogs with CBL. Data regarding sex, breed, age, signalment, treatment and clinical course of the disease from 52 dogs diagnosed with centroblastic lymphoma (CBL) with cytology and immunocytochemistry were provisionally collected and related to the treatment outcome and survival. More than 80% of dogs were treated with chemotherapy and achieved complete remission in 80% of cases. Among the prognostic factors positively related to the overall survival time of dogs with CBL were: the application of chemotherapy, achieving a complete remission, application of at least one additional chemotherapeutic agent to the basic protocol, especially the administration of mitoxantrone and asparaginase. Moreover, mitotic count 14 or higher measured in cytological slides in the area of 2,37 mm2 have been linked to shorter overall survival in dogs with CBL., (Copyright© by the Polish Academy of Sciences.)

Malignant lymphomas are one of the most common malignant tumours occurring in dogs. The basic method of lymphoma diagnosis in human, as well as in canine oncology is histopathology supported by immunohistochemistry. It was suggested that in veterinary medicine excisional biopsy of lymph node and histopathology should be considered only where the cytologic diagnosis is equivocal or needs to be confirmed. There are at least three basic reasons for which cytological examination ought to be accepted as a sufficient and reliable diagnostic method for lymphoma in dogs. Firstly, most dog owners consider the fine-needle biopsy as an acceptable non-harmful method of sample collection. Secondly, an increasing number of studies recommend cytology as an accurate test for diagnosing and subtyping canine lymphoma. Finally, the vast majority of canine lymphoma subtypes belong to 4-5 categories characterized by a typical cytological picture. Immunocytochemical staining of cytological smears gives new diagnostic possibilities, such as detection of markers better characterizing given growth or a potential goal for target therapy in individual cases (for example inhibitors of platelet-derived growth factor).

Large granular lymphomas (LGLs) comprise a specific group of lymphomas regardless of classifi- cation scheme. An LGL consists of cells that show less or more mature morphology, but typically neoplastic cells possess cytoplasmic azurophilic granules clearly visible during cytological examin- ation. The aim of the present study was to present clinical and cytological data on large granular lymphomas in cats and to analyses the therapeutic responses in treated cases. During the period from 2012 to 2014 six cats were as having large granular lymphoma. In one cat a nasal form of LGL was recognized, a systemic form was recognized in another cat, and in four cases an alimentary form was recognized. Cellular samples for cytopathology were collected from the cat with nasal cavity mass, from the enlarged mandibular lymph node and thoracic cavity from second cat, and in four cats from the abdominal mass during ultrasound-assisted fine-needle biopsy. Therapy was introduced in 5 of the 6 cats. In two cases palliative therapy with glucocorticoids was conducted, in two cases chemotherapy with COP protocol, and therapy with masitinib in one case. The median of survival time for cats treated with anticancer therapy was 9 months, the median of survival time for cats treated with glucocorticoids was 1.5 months. In conclusion, large granular lymphomas, especially the alimentary form, are a relatively common type of lymphoma in cats. Simple diagnostic methods such as clinical examination, imaging techniques and routine cytology are sufficient in majority of cases. Despite aggressive behavior and poor general prognosis, conventional chemotherapy lead to a good response in some treated cats regardless of anatomic form and histologic grade of malignancy.

The aim of this study was to compare the concordance of immunophenotype established with routine cytopathology (slides stained with Giemsa solution) and immunocytochemistry according to CD3 and CD79 alpha immunoreactivity. The study was performed on cytological samples of 70 canine lymphomas subtyped on the basis of the updated Kiel classification system. Additionally, cytologic samples were examined immunocytochemically for the CD3 and CD79 alpha antigens presence and thus immunophenotype of neoplastic growth was confirmed. The cytopathological and immunocytochemical diagnoses were then compared; in order to measure the concordance between immunocytochemistry (IC) result and Giemsa stain result of the same sample the Cohen's kappa coefficient was calculated. On the basis of the results of immunocytochemistry of 70 cases of canine lymphoma examined 42 were recognized as B cell lymphoma and 28 as T cell lymphoma. Full accordance between the results of routine cytopathology and IC was obtained in 63 out of 70 examined dogs (90% of cases). It can be concluded that cytopathological examination of Giemsa stained smears is helpful in determining the lymphoma cells immunophenotype. Additionally, it seems that combination of routine cytopathology and immunocytochemistry in cases of canine lymphomas allows to obtain the precise diagnosis in 90% of cases, and allows to receive most important information that is necessary for planning of appropriate therapy and to determine prognosis. Finally, this routine procedure allowed to eliminate the need of collection of tissue samples during surgery or core-biopsy and thus time, cost and patient discomfort related to more complex and invasive medical procedures can be easily reduced.

Lymphoma is one of the most common malignant tumours occurring in dogs. Since there is a constant need for new, more comprehensive laboratory diagnostic tools which permit the precise determination of many tumour-related factors we decided to verify whether the use of microarray analysis could be helpful in classifying lymphomas. The study was performed on samples collected from 7 dogs in which multicentric lymphoma was recognized. Among this group we were able to identify one sub-cluster of transcriptionally similar tumours, which completely differed in terms of the histopathological examination. Among them there were one diffuse large B cell lymphoma, one diffuse macronucleolated medium-sized cell lymphoma and one pleomorphic mixed small and large T-cell lymphoma. The lymphomas belonging to the sub-cluster differed from other analysed tumours in the expression of more than 100 genes of which only 18 were described earlier in regard to lymphomas.

Malignant lymphoma is one of the most common malignant tumours occurring in dogs. Fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) is an excellent, specific diagnostic procedure used to assess pathological processes in lymph nodes. The aim of the present study was to conduct a cytopathological analysis of lymphoma in dogs and to analyse some epidemic aspects of occurrence of lymphoma in 100 dogs using Giemsa stained slides. Samples were obtained by fine needle aspiration biopsy, fine needle non-aspiration biopsy, lymph node impression smears and by examination of body cavity effusions. The determination of the type and subtype of tumour was made on the basis of the updated Kiel classification adopted for dogs. Based on cytopathological analysis, the lymphoma was diagnosed in 100 dogs: 44 were female and 56 male. The animals' age ranged from 1.5 year to 15 years (median: 7.5 years), the animals were of different breeds (72% of all dogs belonged to 28 different breeds) and crossbreeds (28%). In 29% of dogs the regional or general lymphadenomegaly was the only clinical sign observed, in remaining cases (71%) at least one abnormality connected to lymphoma was found. Among all diagnosed lymphomas, high-grade lymphomas were more prevalent (86% of all cases) than low-grade lymphomas (14% of all cases). The possibility of boxers having a predisposition to T cell lymphoma development could be also suspected.