Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Skin squamous cell carcinoma in dogs signs and survival
By Willcox, Jennifer L et al.·Published in Veterinary and comparative oncology·2019·Department of Surgical and Radiological Sciences, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Clinical features and outcome of dermal squamous cell carcinoma in 193 dogs (1987-2017).
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of 193 dogs diagnosed with skin cancer called squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) were studied to understand their symptoms and outcomes. Many of these dogs had signs of sun damage, which was linked to longer survival times. On average, dogs with sun damage lived about 1,359 days after diagnosis, while those without it lived around 680 days. Various treatments were used, but more research is needed to see if additional therapies like radiation or chemotherapy can help improve survival rates for dogs with this type of cancer.
People also search for: dog skin cancer treatment · squamous cell carcinoma in dogs · dog sun damage skin cancer
Abstract
Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is a frequently recognized dermal tumour in dogs and has been described as a common pathology induced by solar ultraviolet radiation exposure. Little has been published about this neoplasm with regard to clinical features and outcome in dogs. This retrospective study included 193 dogs from a single institution histopathologically diagnosed with SCC of the dermis. Thirty-eight percent of all dogs had documented histopathologic actinic change. The overall median survival time was 1004 days, with the population demonstrating actinic change associated with a significantly longer survival time (median 1359 days, range 16-3530 days) compared to dogs without actinic change (median 680 days, range 16-3066 days) and this achieved significance on multivariate analysis (hazard ratio 0.42, 95% confidence interval 0.193-0.930, P = 0.032). These data demonstrate increased survival of dogs with SCC demonstrating actinic change over those with non-actinic SCCs, and purports long-term survival for these animals. Dogs received a variety of treatment approaches as a retrospective study, and future prospective studies will be necessary to investigate whether adjunct therapies such as radiation or chemotherapy offer improvement in survival for dermal SCC in the dog.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30684311/