Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Cytokeratin in dog sarcomas does not show joint origin
By Wager, Annalisa C et al.·Published in Veterinary pathology·2025·The University of Tennessee·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Cytokeratin expression by sarcomas does not indicate synovial origin in dogs.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A study looked at sarcomas (a type of cancer) in 33 dogs, including 25 with subcutaneous (under the skin) tumors and 8 with articular (joint) tumors. The researchers tested the tumors for a protein called cytokeratin to see if it could indicate where the cancer originated. They found that cytokeratin expression did not help determine the origin of the tumors, and survival rates were similar for dogs with different types of sarcomas. Overall, the findings suggest that testing for cytokeratin is not useful in understanding these cancers in dogs.
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Abstract
Sarcoma samples from 33 dogs, 25 subcutaneous and 8 articular, were submitted for cytokeratin immunohistochemistry. Eight of the 25 subcutaneous sarcomas (32%) expressed cytokeratin in 1% to 50% of the neoplastic cells. Of the 7 articular sarcomas evaluated, 1 (14%) expressed cytokeratin in 10% of neoplastic cells. The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the mean overall survival of dogs with subcutaneous sarcomas (28.1 months [confidence interval [CI]:17.8, 38.4]) did not significantly differ from those with articular sarcomas (24.8 months [CI = 0.5, 29.0]). Overall survival of dogs with sarcomas (both locations combined) immunoreactive for cytokeratin (31.2 months [CI = 17.8, 44.6]) did not differ from those not immunoreactive for cytokeratin (22.0 months [CI = 8.4, 35.6]). Therefore, cytokeratin expression does not indicate synovial origin (= .64) and neither sarcoma location (= .76) nor cytokeratin expression (.53) affects patient overall survival in this small study. The use of cytokeratin immunohistochemistry is not helpful to determine synovial origin of sarcomas in dogs.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39283156/