• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.469-472
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• 2008

Necropsy was performed on a total of twenty three either white leghorn or ogol chickens which were more than 150 weeks of age. Among twenty three chickens examined, fifteen chickens were laying and the rest eight chickens were non-laying. On necropsy, neoplastic mass in the five chickens among non-laying chickens was found. These neoplastic masses were present mostly in the ovaries and one case in the liver and characterized by multifocal to coalescing 1 to 5 mm tan firm nodular formation. On histopathology, ovarian adenocarcinoma with widespread abdominal seeding and hepatic metastasis was diagnosed in the three chickens. Oviductal leiomyoma was also found in two chickens that had a focal well-demarcated nodules in the oviduct. Taken together, the number with ovarian adenocarcinoma among non-laying chickens over 150 week old was 37.5%. As most animal species do rarely develop ovarian tumors, the high rate of spontaneous ovarian adenocarcinoma in non-laying hen suggest that the hen is a proper model for human ovarian cancer study.