Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Oral mucosal mast cell tumors in dogs often spread to lymph nodes
By Elliott, J W et al.·Published in Veterinary and comparative oncology·2016·Department of Veterinary Clinical Science, United Kingdom·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Canine oral mucosal mast cell tumours.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs with oral mast cell tumors (a type of skin cancer) was studied to see how aggressive these tumors are and how they affect the dog's health. It was found that more than half of the dogs had cancer spread to their lymph nodes at the time of diagnosis, which usually means a worse outcome. However, dogs that received proper treatment to control the tumor showed improved survival times, even if the cancer had spread. This suggests that while oral mast cell tumors can be serious, effective treatment can still help dogs live longer.
People also search for: dog oral tumor treatment · mast cell tumor prognosis in dogs · dog lymph node cancer survival
Abstract
Mast cell tumours (MCTs) are the most common cutaneous tumours of dogs, however rarely they can arise from the oral mucosa. This subset of MCT is reported to demonstrate a more aggressive clinical course than those tumours on the haired skin and the authors hypothesised that dogs with oral, mucosal MCT would have a high incidence of local lymph node metastasis at presentation and that this would be a negative prognostic factor. An additional hypothesis was that mitotic index (MI) would be prognostic. This retrospective study examines 33 dogs with MCTs arising from the oral mucosa. The results suggest that oral mucosal MCTs in the dog have a high incidence of lymph node metastasis at diagnosis (55%) which results in a poor prognosis. MI and nodal metastasis is highly prognostic. Loco-regional progression is common in these patients and dogs with adequate local control of their tumour had an improved outcome. Despite a more aggressive clinical course, treatment can result in protracted survivals, even when metastasis is present.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24215587/