Uterine adenocarcinoma in a female bottlenosed dolphin stranded in northern Patagonia

SÁNCHEZ, JUANA; KUBA, LUISA; DANS, SILVANA LAURA; CRESPO, ENRIQUE ALBERTO; COSCARELLA, MARIANO ALBERTO; GARCÍA, NÉSTOR ANÍBAL; KOEN ALONSO, MARIANO; PEDRAZA, SUSANA NOEMÍ; BERÓN VERA, BÁRBARA; MARIOTTI, PABLO ARIEL

Valencia

Conferencia; 13th Annual Conference of the European Cetacean Society; 1999

European Cetacean Society

An adult female bottlenosed dolphin stranded at Playa Unión, in northern Patagonia on July 1997. The size of the specimen was 3.2m, its weigh was 296 kg and the age estimated by tooth sectioning was 29 years old. The specimen was sexually mature and showed 43 ovarian scars with a recent corpus albicans. The specimen showed and endometrial adenocarcinoma in its final stages with epidermoid differentiation. It was locally and regionally invasive affecting the abdominal organs with distant metastasis. The organs involved included liver, kidneys, spleen, diaphragm, lungs and pericardium and they showed nodules of sizes from 5 to 8 mm, whitish to yellowish in colour and without cavity in structure. The walls of the uterus were thick and showed a lumen. The left horn was larger. The walls of the bladder were also thick and showed a greasy appearance. the mesenterium of the portal system was full of nodules as well as the external walls of the intestine all along its length. Some portions of the intestine and the rectum showed folds in places where one side of the wall was thicken by numerous nodules. Histological sections confirmed the macroscopic metastasis for the abdominal organs. The lungs, which did not indicate metastasis during the macroscopic inspection, showed histological evidence of infiltration. Another case of uterine adenocarcinoma was reported for the beluga whale by Martineau et al. (1998). Geraci (1987) reported leiomiomas in uterus for other cetacean species and Howard (1983) reported two adenocarcinomas in uterus of California Sea Lions.