>I guess the rarity of leukemia in ferrets depends on who you talk to and >where you live. I personally know two people who lost ferrets to >leukemia, one last summer and one whose devoted owner kept her alive for >a year with her awesome nursing skills. Since one of the cases was >diagnosed by one of the vets who frequents this list <<<<waves>>>> >I have no doubts of the legitimacy of that diagnoses. Here is the answer for everyone who wonders about the difference between leukemia and lymphoma (lymphosarcoma) - It's just the location. Now I'll generalize a bit - the vast majority of leukemias are composed of lymphocytes. (Leukemia simply means a neoplasm of white blood cells, of which there are several others - neutrophils, eosinophils, monocytes, and basophils, but leukemias composed of these cell lines are pretty rare.) Lymphoma is a neoplasm composed of lymphocytes - they grow and multiply out of control. The term lymphoma indicates a solid tumor growth - it can be in a lymph node, in the liver, in the bladder, eye, or any other organ. With leukemia, the tumor is in a specific organ - the blood. The tumor cells circulate in the blood, and you may see markedly elevated levels of lymphocytes. (Leukemia also encompasses neoplastic cells in the bone marrow, where blood is made from). So if you find the neoplastic cells in the blood or bone marrow, it's a leukemia. If you find tumors in other organs, it's a lymphoma. And in the rare cases in which you find both, I have used the term leukemic lymphoma, which makes everyone happy. With kindest regards, Bruce H. Williams, DVM, DACVP Join the Ferret Health List at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list [Posted in FML issue 3420]