Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor in a cat with nodal and pulmonary metastases

Abstract

Peripheral nerve sheath tumors in domestic cats are infrequently reported and are often locally invasive. An 11-year-old Domestic Shorthair cat was originally diagnosed with a right maxillary benign peripheral nerve sheath tumor at incisional biopsy. At necropsy, the neoplasm had features of malignancy including metastases to the regional lymph nodes and lung. Histologically, the neoplasm contained 2 distinct regions: spindle cells arranged in dense interwoven bundles with Antoni A areas and Verocay bodies and Antoni B regions with loosely arranged spindle cells separated by a mucinous matrix. Immunohistochemically, the neoplastic cells in the primary mass and right mandibular lymph node were strongly positive for vimentin, S-100, and glial fibrillar acidic protein. The neoplastic cells within the lung were strongly positive for vimentin and weakly positive for S-100 and glial fibrillar acidic protein.