A review of spontaneous neoplasia in baboons (Papio spp.)

The baboon has become an increasingly important animal model and accurate information on baboon neoplasia is frequently required for biomedical research. To satisfy this demand, a complete literature search was carried out. Two hundred and four spontaneous neoplasms were found in published literature: 53 cases were male (26%), 76 were female (37%); sex was not reported in 75 cases (37%). Ages ranged from 3 months to 31 years (mean 14.1 years) in the 93 cases that reported them. Spontaneous neoplasms have been documented in Papio cynocephalus and Papio hamadryas as well as in most subspecies and hybrid combinations. The organ systems affected in descending order of number of neoplasms were hematopoietic (n = 53, 26%), alimentary (n = 52, 25%), urogenital (n = 35, 17%), integumentary (n = 26, 13%), endocrine (n = 14, 7%), nervous (n = 12, 5%), musculoskeletal (n = 4, 2%) and respiratory (n = 3, 1%). There were five miscellaneous neoplasms (2%) that could not be classified by system. Lymphosarcoma was the most common neoplasm (n = 51, 25%), and adenocarcinomas were second (n = 23, 11%), followed by squamous cell carcinomas (n = 10, 5%). Malignant cases numbered 114 (56%); 87 cases were (43%) benign. The malignancy of three cases (1%) was unreported.