Oral Sarcoma in Cats

After a light sedation using Domitor and Ketamine we were able to visually asses the situation, please see Fig. 1.

It was fairly obvious that the swelling was not dental in origin, but tumoral with unclearly delimited margins.

The teeth that were involved in the tumoral formation were mobile and had a lighter colored, translucent area around the apical area as visible on the X-rays performed using the retro-alveolar parallel technique and regular dental films, see in Fig. 2.

The "real” lucent area was not around (surrounding the apex) but mesial and distal to the root of the 4th premolar and what is worse was surrounded with an area of unclear aspect and a definite bone involvement and bone rarefaction, see Fig. 3. We decided to perform an incisional biopsy and as a result several fragments were collected radio-surgically to avoid confusion with the healthy margins of the tumor and to offer a cellular multilayer assessment option to the pathologist.

Our worse fear was confirmed and "Molli’s” tumor was a sarcoma with an infected area (a purulent discharge visible on the Photo 1) and multiple mitosis.

Sarcoma’s are the second most incriminated malignant tumors in cats following carcinomas. Between 50-60 % of the malignant tumors in cats are squamous cell carcinomas.

Considering the advanced age of the patient and the extent of the tumor as well as the amount of vital structures involved the tumor is inoperable and the patient not a good candidate for chemo and/or radiotherapy.

We advised the owners to maintain the feeding habits of the cat and offer her everything she wanted.

DDr. Stoian Camil