Malignant histiocytosis in cattle.

Malignant histiocytosis was diagnosed in 4 cows. In all cases the tumor tissues were composed of cytologically atypical histiocytes with evidence of erythrophagocytosis. The tumor in case 1 appeared highly anaplastic with marked nuclear pleomorphism, and had areas of spindle cell differentiation, but had no relation to malignant fibrous histiocytoma. The neoplastic tissue in case 2, characterized by cohesive growth of tumor cells, was distinguishable from anaplastic carcinoma cells by cytokeratin immunostaining. There were many hemosiderin-laden neoplastic cells suggestive of high phagocytic activity in a lymph node of case 3. The neoplastic cells in case 4, frequently multinucleated, were less atypical than in the other cases. All cases expressed histiocyte-associated markers (lysozyme and HAM56), and were negative for cytokeratin, S100, and T- and B-cell lineage-specific markers (CD3 and CD79a). The most frequent HAM56 immunoreactivity was detected in case 4, and the giant, multinucleated forms, reminiscent of epithelioid cell differentiation. seemed not to indicate cytological pleomorphism as a result of neoplastic transformation.