Report of dysgerminoma in the ovaries of a snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) with discussion of ovarian neoplasms reported in reptilians and women.

A malnourished, captive, young adult (weight-11 kg, carapace length-25 cm), female snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) was presented for examination and treatment of malnutrition and multiple carapace necroses. Because treatment was unsuccessful, the animal was euthanatized and necropsied. The main necropsy observations showed the presence of a 9 cm greyish-white/yellow, soft, fleshy to fatlike mass involving the right ovary near the oviduct opening and multiple similar, pea-to-walnut sized masses involving both ovaries. Microscopic examination of formalin fixed, hematoxylin and eosin and silver stained tissue sections revealed the masses to be composed of primordial germ cells arranged in a pattern morphologically compatible with dysgerminoma as described in women and other mammals. Very rarely have ovarian neoplasms been reported in turtles or other reptiles. This is the first neoplasm described in the snapping turtle ovary and the first dysgerminoma reported in reptilians. A tabulation of previously documented ovarian neoplasia in reptiles and a comparison of this cancer to those occurring in women will be discussed.

Neoplasms during the progression of pregnancy.

Restricting this review to dealing with pregnancy and its interaction with neoplasms limits us to the child-bearing years. Neoplasms may appear at all stages of species with true tissues and the incidence of malignancy in pregnancy is estimated to be 1:1,000. Almost 50% of these tumors are cervical cancers, followed by breast cancer, with an incidence of approximately 0.03%. The pregnant woman, in the same person, exhibits controlled growth (the pregnancy) and uncontrolled growth (the malignancy). In younger women, the neoplasms represent early stages of biological development and seem to arise practically from all maternal tissues. Geriatric changes in the neoplastic growth processes are missing. This article encompasses a review of the integration of neoplasms, the maternal body, the fetus and the placenta. The morphological and biochemical integration of the different processes is diversified. Mainly, we would like to address the interaction between pregnancy and common human malignancies like breast, cervix, and melanoma, but we will also review rare neoplastic complications. This way it is possible to treat the combined growth processes as they evolve from the initiated sperm, the ovum and continue via the placental development. These processes lead to the fetus and, in the pathological sense, to childhood complications, though most cases develop only portions of the process.