Neoplasms in the Lower Primates, with a Description of an Osteogenic Sarcoma of the Jaw in a Macacus Rhesus

Abstract

The presence of neoplasms in wild and captive animals has frequently been reported. They appear with varying frequency in different species and apparently are more common in the rodentia and carnivora than in the lower primates. In over seven hundred autopsies of primates recorded at the Philadelphia Zoological Gardens (1) only five tumors were noted. They are as follows: a hypernephroma in a brown Cebus; a papillary adenoma of the gastric mucosa in a Hamandryas baboon; an adenocarcinoma of the rectum of a Macacus pileatus with extensions to the prostate; an adenocarcinoma involving the head of the pancreas in a Grivet monkey, and finally a giant-cell tumor of the ulna of a Chacma baboon with metastases to the lungs, heart, and gluteus muscles (2). Only two tumors in primates have been reported from the London Zoological Gardens. One was described as a sarcoma of the scalp of a Cercopitheque, and another as an adenosarcoma of the kidney of an Ouakari (3, 4).