Malignant mixed sex cord-stromal tumour in a stallion.

A 30-year-old Standardbred stallion was examined for unilateral scrotal swelling. Physical and ultrasound examinations revealed a painless enlarged left testis with a non-homogeneous echogenicity, when compared with the controlateral testis. The stallion underwent left unilateral orchiectomy. Grossly, the excised testis was irregularly enlarged (12 x 9 x 9 cm; weight: 530 g) and firm. The sections showed that testicular parenchyma was replaced by a lobulated, greyish-white mass, which involved the epididymal head. At microscopy, a dual Leydig and Sertoli cell tumour component could be seen. Neoplastic Sertoli cells were prevalent and presented pleomorphic cells, mitotic figures and occasional vascular invasion. Tumour patterns showed tubular and solid areas, cord-like or diffuse in appearance, among which newly formed Leydig cell nests and low-density fibrillar bundles were interposed. Immunohistochemically, a weak to moderate immunostaining for vimentin, AE(1)/AE(3) cytokeratin, alpha-1-antitrypsin and CD99 antigens was found in the growing Sertoli cells, whose nuclear MIB-1 labelling index scored 13 +/- 2%. The Leydig tumour cells, on the other hand, displayed a moderate to strong positivity for alpha-inhibin, vimentin, AE(1)/AE(3) cytokeratin, neurone-specific enolase and CD99. On the basis of these findings, a diagnosis of malignant mixed sex cord-stromal tumour was made.