Bad News...

You've got a tumor.

Check out what Doc brought into the boat...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL0O41eFcBI&feature=plcp

Oughta go great on the BBQ!

Thanks for posting the vid, Jesse.

Just shared it on Ifish as well.

There's a reference in the vid about finding a similar tumor in summer steel. That was about 3 years ago...

http://www.ifish.net/board/showpost.php?p=2684324&postcount=4

Pathologist just called to confirm a cancer diagnosis from frozen section. High grade poorly differentiated sarcoma... Poss rhabdomyosarcoma poss liposarcoma poss malignant fibrohistiocytoma.

Completely non-kidney origin.

Good thing we put it out of its misery.

I've never seen one like that.

blender.....jam?

I went to chat with my pathologist to show him the video, but the signal to my iPhone was almost non-existent in the lead-lined bowels of the hospital.

So we got on his computer to track down the YouTube video on a search of "salmon tumor", but came up with this instead....



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKadU4VZIFM

That's a pink salmon in Alaska with two HUGE tumors, one of which broke thru the skin to completely emerge on the surface.

YUMMMMMMMMM!

I vote angiosarcoma,

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Well every expert has an opinion.

Obviously my diagnosis based on gross examination was, to quote Parker, "an epic fail". It's a good thing they don't let the eye guys operate anywhere else on a human patient!

Well my pathologist colleague is gonna bring the slides to their next Grand Rounds as a "mystery case". That's where all of the pathologists get together to analyze and diagnose "interesting" cases.

Only he won't divulge that this specimen came from a salmon.

This is going to ruin my appetite for fish for a few days.

Here are the pics after the tumor was removed.

Pretty aggressive tumor seeing as how it displaced the adjacent ribs and basically ate thru the others.

Seen a couple of those over the years, one in a Coho on the Sky and the other, much bigger from the North Fork Lewis on a Summer Run. Looked like the fish ate a golf ball from the course, that was the joke until we cut it open!

And that was back in the 70's

Doc, I'm listening......cause of such things known?

Eh, it'll smoke up just fine...

<ducks for cover>

I trust you got negative margins,

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Are you kidding? Look at the 1st pic in Jesse's last post. There's still a bit of pudding visible in the bottom of the bowl.

Thought I did pretty good for using only the mini-scooper on the butt end of that fillet knife.

sorry, didn't have a full grasp on the conditions in your OR. certainly not casting aspersions on your surgical skills,

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It doesn't matter.............it was DEAD.
Margins only matter for "5-year" stats, don't they?

I appreciate the posts and info Doc.

Gross, just another reason not to eat pinks.

Never did followup with the final pathologic results from permanent section, but better late than never. Hope no one sues me for a delay in diagnosis.

FINAL DIAGNOSIS:
I am attaching histology from permanent sections. What really threw me is the fish erythrocytes, which (apparently) are nucleated. What is shown, then, is a spindle cell malignant tumor with vascular spaces containing many red cells—a high grade angiosarcoma.


Unfortunately, the patient did NOT survive the operation.

LOL Doc. Looked more like a necropsy than surgery. I don't think your patient had a chance. Interesting find though. The gross side of me likes this type of stuff.

I think my assistant got a little carried away with the anesthesia.

So the thing I found most interesting about this whole diagnostic dilemma was the erythrocytes (red blood cells)

When mature, yours and mine have no nucleus



Whereas those in fish never lose their nucleus…

OK, I had to look up angiosarcoma. Don't know how long a fish would have with it; spawning salmon, it probably wouldn't matter. But, sounds like in humans, it's bad news.

Lots of critters have nucleated red cells FnP. . .you should spend more time with your pathologists!

Told you it was gonna be an A-Sarc!

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Thought I'd share this one ... a winter steel pic contributed to the Ifish board. Peritoneal carcinomatosis.

MMMMMMM....



Bon appetit?

Mmm, you can choose your friends, and you can choose your doctor. You can't choose your family, and it never occurred to me to choose a pathologist.

Hardly anybody knows what we do, which is I guess good and bad depending on how you look at it.

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So now I've managed to pull 3 salmonids over the gunnel with this pathologic finding. First was a CR steelhead in 2009. Next was the GH coho in 2012. Found another GH coho in 2017 with another a-sarc tucked in the belly wall adjacent to the right ventral fin of this rather anorexic hen coho. I say anorexic because she's built almost like a hatchery steelhead.... no meat on her bones!



If you look carefully you can see the tumor hemorrhaging down her right flank. When I cut her open her meat was pox'd with many hemorrhagic metastases. I should have saved you the carcass, fishbadger, but my guests took it home.

So here's the cut side of the tumor which had actually eroded full thickness thru the skin on the other side. If you look carefully, you'll see one of the hemorrhagic mets far right, one just subQ in the middle of the pic and one right on the edge of my vertical incision thru the meat.



Here's the hemorrhagic mets on the other fillet... 5 in the meat and another subQ at the ventral fin insertion.

One-Eyed Goat sent me some pics of a GH coho he caught this year with an almost identical tumor that went full thickness thru the body wall by the ventral fin. Maybe he'll post 'em here.

Here they are.... notice the nearly identical tumor location.