My cat has a liver mass. Is a benign cystadenoma a type of cancer?

So sorry about your cat. It Is sometimes hard to predict the likelihood of neoplasia versus a benign cause. I have had cases that I thought would be lymphoma and turned out to be an infection/inflammation. I know it is hard waiting on the biopsy results but try not to worry until the results are back. Hoping for good news when the results are in.

Liver disease can cause diarrhea, but numerous other diseases cause diarrhea as well and usually diarrhea is seen with significant liver disease. If the liver growths are benign then surgery may not be necessary, although some benign tumors can continue to grow large enough that they can cause problems. If it is not known 100% if the growths are benign or malignant then surgery might be necessary to determine exactly what they are. You may want to discuss your concerns with your vet to see what they recommend, or ask about referral to a specialist.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I deal with these tumors regularly as I only see cancer cases. Thankfully, hemangiomas are benign tumors and are not known to spread to other locations so there is no need to look for metastasis as that would be extremely rare. Normally though you would look for metastasis by doing thoracic radiographs and abdominal ultrasound. There is no definitive way to avoid these growths so the recommendation is to remove them if observed. Good luck and I'm glad to hear they are benign!

This kind of lump/growth needs to be ideally assessed by your veterinarian to have a definitive and specific answer. Usually there are two ways your vet can do that a part from examining it directly during physical examination. A biopsy can be taken under local or general anesthetic, otherwise a smaller sample through a fine needle can be aspirated (this technique is called FNA= fine needle aspiration). Differentials include skin cysts, infections, benign or more sinister type of tumors. Please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Poor Jack! Cushings disease is VERY rare in cats. I think it is unlikely that the mass is Cushing's disease. In a dog Cushings disease can cause liver enlargement and if it is the adrenal form there is an adrenal tumor but the more common form is pituitary. The most common cause of masses in the belly of cats are: enlarged lymph nodes (lymphoma), intestinal masses (lympoma, adenocarcinoma), or kidney tumors. Consider an abdominal ultrasound to get more information so you know what Jack is dealing with that way you can make informed decisions about his care. I hope this helps and I wish you and Jack the best!

Your suspicions are right. This is a skin mass unfortunately. Due to the color, I would recommend having Nanni seen by your vet and the mass sampled to see if this is cancerous or benign (non-cancerous). Hopefully it is not cancerous and we can just monitor it. But if it does end up being cancerous (after viewing the cells that make up the mass microscopically), then removal of the mass can be discussed with your vet. I wish you all the best moving forward with Nanni. Take care!

The picture only shows an open wound. I don’t see any tumors to speak of. So unfortunately we can’t tell if the additional masses look suspicous for cancer or not. However this open wound looks gnarly and the tissue doesn’t look happy. And the only way to confirm or deny cancer is to have the masses tested and sent to the lab. However some masses are more suspicous for cancer than others. Please feel free to repost your question with a picture of the masses that you are concerned about and we will be more than happy to give you our opinion. Best wishes and take care.