Metastatic Pancreatic Acinar Cell Carcinoma in a Dalmatian: Clinical, Pathologic and Immnohistochemical Aspects

The pancreas is a target organ for several diseases that can be inflammatory, degenerative, or neoplastic. Exocrine pancreatic neoplasms correspond to 0.5% of neoplasms that affect dogs and 1% of pancreatic neoplasms in humans. It may present as single or multiple nodules. Metastases are mainly seen in the liver, intestine, and abdominal lymph nodes. Due to the scarcity of studies of this neoplasm in domestic animals, a case of pancreatic acinar carcinoma in a seven-year-old Dalmatian female dog is reported. The animal was brought to the Veterinary Hospital of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science School-UNESP, Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil. The animal was admitted presenting hyporexia, apathy, olygodipsia, progressive weight loss, tachycardia, jaundice, and abdominal distention due to hepatomegaly and ascites. At necropsy, multiple yellowish-white hepatic neoformations were observed, also seen in the epiploon, regional lymph nodes, and body of the pancreas, from 0.5 to 17 cm. Microscopic analysis revealed the proliferation of epithelial cells arranged in acinar formations, whose morphology resembles exocrine pancreatic tissue. The diagnosis of pancreatic carcinoma was established based on the lesions seen at necropsy and confirmed by histopathological analysis of the neoformations and immunohistochemistry.