Abstract
A 9-year-old, neutered female Maine Coon cat with a 6-week history of progressive ataxia was diagnosed with a cervical vertebral body mass using magnetic resonance imaging. The mass displaced and compressed the cervical spinal cord. The cat was humanely destroyed and necropsy examination confirmed a mass within the second cervical vertebral body. Microscopically, the mass was composed of large, clear, vacuolated ('physaliferous') cells. Immunohistochemically, the neoplastic cells expressed both cytokeratin and vimentin and the final diagnosis was a cervical, vertebral body chordoma. This is only the third report of a chordoma in this species and the first in this location. Chordoma should be considered as a potential differential diagnosis for tumours arising from the cervical vertebrae in the cat.
Highlights
To the authors’ knowledge, there are only two reports of chordoma in the cat; the first being an intramuscular mass on the left side of the neck (Carpenter et al, 1990), presumed to have arisen from ectopic notochord tissue, and the second affecting the last coccygeal vertebra (Carminato et al, 2008)
Based on the appearance of the mass arising within the second cervical vertebral body, a neoplasm was considered most likely, with spinal lymphoma and meningioma having been previously reported in cats (Bradshaw et al, 2004)
On transverse sectioning of the second cervical vertebral body, an expansile, friable mass with a cream–white cut surface was visible arising from the vertebral body and extending into the spinal canal, compressing and dorsally displacing the spinal cord (Fig. 2)
Summary
To the authors’ knowledge, there are only two reports of chordoma in the cat; the first being an intramuscular mass on the left side of the neck (Carpenter et al, 1990), presumed to have arisen from ectopic notochord tissue, and the second affecting the last coccygeal vertebra (Carminato et al, 2008). Based on the appearance of the mass arising within the second cervical vertebral body, a neoplasm was considered most likely, with spinal lymphoma and meningioma having been previously reported in cats (Bradshaw et al, 2004).
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