After kidney disease, cancer is the most common cause of death in older cats. Lymphoma, a tumour of the immune system (originating from special defence cells, the lymphocytes), is the most frequently diagnosed malignant cancer in cats. The disease often develops in the stomach or intestinal tract, which can result in vomiting, lack of appetite, weight loss or diarrhoea. It is known from human medicine that there is not just one type of lymphoma, but a wide variety of lymphoma subtypes, which are treated differently. In cats with lymphoma, knowledge of the various subtypes and the best therapeutic approaches is still very limited. Future improvements in therapy usually require optimisation in diagnostics.

A study carried out at the Department of Oncology at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna has shown that the combination of various modern diagnostic procedures (cytology, pathohistology, flow cytometry, clonality tests) allows a detailed characterisation of the tumour cells and comprehensive lymphoma diagnosis in cats. Using special stains that have not yet been routinely used in feline lymphoma diagnostics, it has also been observed that the proportion of more aggressive lymphoma subtypes in the intestinal tract of cats is higher than originally assumed.

The research into lymphoma in cats was supported by a Vetmeduni donation project.
"We would like to thank all the people whose generous donations made it possible to purchase expensive antibodies for the special stains. It was only thanks to your great support that this fundamental research on and for cats could be realised as planned," said the study authors Birgitt Wolfesberger and Barbara Rütgen from the Vetmeduni.

Scientific publications:

• Frontiers | Flowcytometric data of intermediate-large cell gastrointestinal lymphoma presenting a gross mass in 32 cats - "let them glow in the flow" (frontiersin.org)
• Immunophenotype investigation in feline intestinal non-B-cell lymphoma - ScienceDirect