Erythroblastic sarcoma in the thoracic cavity of a cow

Erythroblastic sarcoma in a 10-year-old Japanese Black cow with anemia is described. Tumor masses or nodules were located mainly in the thoracic cavity, and some lymph nodes were slightly enlarged. Although neoplastic involvement of the bone marrow was detected, the cow was not leukemic. The diagnosis was made based on the localized distribution of neoplastic lesions, no increase of intravascular nucleated cell number, deeply eosinophilic cytoplasm in some tumor cells, and frequent immunoreactivity of the tumor cells for hemoglobin. The tumor cells were characterized by marked pleomorphism and atypia; such morphological deviation from their normal counterparts may be connected with functional deviation resulting in the sarcomatous growth of these erythroid cells.