Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Progesterone levels and growth rates in dog mammary tumors
By Thuróczy, J et al.·Published in Journal of comparative pathology·2007·Department of Obstetrics and Reproduction·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Immunohistochemical detection of progesterone and cellular proliferation in canine mammary tumours.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A study looked at 43 dogs with mammary tumors to understand the role of progesterone and cell growth in these tumors. It found that benign tumors had high levels of progesterone and low cell growth, while malignant tumors had lower progesterone levels and higher cell growth. This suggests that as tumors become cancerous, they rely less on hormones like progesterone. The findings may help veterinarians understand how these tumors behave and could guide treatment options.
People also search for: dog mammary tumor treatment · signs of cancer in dogs · progesterone in dog tumors
Abstract
Immunohistochemical expression of progesterone and the cellular proliferation marker Ki-67 was assessed in formalin-fixed, paraffin wax-embedded samples from 43 canine mammary tumours. Benign tumours showed high surface membrane progesterone expression (mean 196.42+/-25.91 positively labelled cells per 500 tumour cells) and low cellular proliferation (52.14+/-16.73 positively labelled cells per 500 tumour cells), whilst malignant tumours had low progesterone expression (68.19+/-17.53 positively labelled cells per 500 tumour cells) and higher cellular proliferation (141.72+/-23.65 positively labelled cells per 500 tumour cells), the difference being statistically significant (P<0.005) in both cases. These findings suggest that the majority of progesterone receptors in canine mammary tumour tissue are not associated with bound progesterone. The progression towards malignancy in spontaneously arising canine mammary tumours therefore appears to be associated with a decrease in steroid hormone dependency. Progesterone expression was also noted in the cytoplasm of tumour cells where it may be associated with a cellular repair mechanism. This hypothesis is supported by the finding of significantly higher progesterone content in the cytoplasm of benign tumour cells.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17645888/