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Peer-reviewed veterinary case report

How tumor grade affects mast cell tumor return after dog surgery

By Donnelly, L et al.·Published in Veterinary and comparative oncology·2015·School of Veterinary Medicine, United States·View original on PubMed

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Original publication title: Evaluation of histological grade and histologically tumour-free margins as predictors of local recurrence in completely excised canine mast cell tumours.

Species:
dog

Plain-English summary

A study looked at dogs with mast cell tumors (MCTs) that had been completely removed to see if the width of the tumor-free margins affected the chance of the tumor coming back. It found that high-grade tumors were more likely to recur compared to low-grade tumors, with a recurrence rate of 35.9% for high-grade versus only 3.9% for low-grade. Interestingly, even low-grade tumors with narrow margins of less than 3mm did not come back, suggesting that these margins are sufficient for low-grade tumors. However, high-grade tumors still have a significant risk of returning, regardless of the margin width.

People also search for: dog mast cell tumor treatment · high-grade mast cell tumor prognosis · dog tumor recurrence prevention

Abstract

Completeness of mast cell tumour (MCT) excision is determined by assessment of histologically tumour-free margins (HTFM). The HTFM width necessary to prevent local recurrence (LR), recognized as histologic safety margin (HSM) in human oncology, has not been defined. We hypothesized that HTFM width would correlate with risk for LR and high-grade tumours would require wider HTFM than low-grade tumours. Records of dogs with completely excised MCTs were included. Signalment, two-tier tumour grade, tumour size, HTFM width, recurrence and therapy data was collected. High-grade (n&#x2009;=&#x2009;39) tumours were more likely to recur than low-grade (n&#x2009;=&#x2009;51) tumours (35.9% versus 3.9%), P&#x2009;<&#x2009;0.0001, with no association between HTFM width and LR. Twenty-nine percent of low-grade tumours had HTFM less than 3&#x2009;mm; none recurred. Narrow (&#x2264;3&#x2009;mm) histologic margins are likely adequate to prevent LR of low-grade tumours. High-grade tumours have significant risk of LR regardless of HTFM width.

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Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23451809/