Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Cytology test to grade dog skin mast cell tumors before surgery
By Scarpa, Filippo et al.·Published in Veterinary and comparative oncology·2016·Department of Veterinary Medical Sciences, Italy·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Cytological grading of canine cutaneous mast cell tumours.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A dog with a skin lump was diagnosed with a mast cell tumor (MCT), which is a type of skin cancer. Researchers tested a new grading system that looks at cell characteristics from fine-needle aspirations (FNAs) to help determine how aggressive the tumor is before surgery. The grading system was accurate in predicting the tumor's severity in most cases, but there was a small chance that some high-grade tumors could be missed. This method can help veterinarians make better treatment decisions for dogs with MCTs.
People also search for: dog skin lump mast cell tumor · mast cell tumor grading in dogs · dog cancer treatment options
Abstract
A cytological grading for mast cell tumours (MCTs) would be highly desirable, allowing to select the most appropriate therapeutic intervention prior to surgery. This study evaluates the applicability on fine-needle aspirations (FNAs) of the novel Kiupel grading system, based on number of mitoses, multinucleated cells, bizarre nuclei and presence of karyomegaly. Fifty consecutive cases with pre-operative cytological diagnosis were included. In cytological specimens, approximately 1000 cells were evaluated, and the histological grade was assessed on the corresponding resected specimens. On cytology, the above parameters were significantly different between histologically low-grade and high-grade tumours (P < 0.001). The cytograding correctly predicted the histological grade in 47 cases (accuracy, 94%; sensitivity, 84.6%; specificity, 97.3%). Two high-grade MCTs (4%) were not detected on cytology. The cytograding can provide helpful insights to assist clinical decisions in most cases. However, the risk of underestimation in a minority of patients represents a limit to the overall utility of the technique.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24717019/