A 12+ year old male broomtail grouper (Mycteroperca xenarcha) became
inappetent in June 1997. It died in August after 2 months of complete inappetence. Gross necropsy
revealed elevated nodules ranging in size from 2 millimeters (mm) to 3 centimeters (cm) in diameter in
the oral cavity and stomach. Histopathology revealed that the oral lesions were composed of fronds of
poorly differentiated squamous epithelium in a vascular stroma heavily infiltrated with leukocytes.
Mitotic activity in the epithelium was minimal. These masses were identified as a squamous cell
carcinoma of low grade malignancy. The masses in the stomach were composed of various sizes and shapes
of acinar structures which protruded from the mucosa into the lumen. The epithelium forming the
glandular tissue varied from fairly well differentiated with abundant eosinophilic granular cytoplasm to
poorly differentiated with basophilic cytoplasm and a large vesicular nucleus. Mitotic figures were
minimal. The masses were identified as a gastric adenocarcinoma. Currently, no explanation is available
as to what factors contributed to the neoplastic changes.