Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Serum survivin levels tested as cancer marker in dogs
By Estaller, Annkathrin et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary science·2021·Small Animal Clinic, Germany·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Investigation of serum survivin in dogs suffering from cancer: a multicenter study.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A study found that dogs with cancer had higher levels of a protein called survivin in their blood compared to healthy dogs and those with non-cancerous conditions. Specifically, dogs with malignant tumors had survivin levels ranging from 15 to over 5,900 pg/mL, while healthy dogs had levels between 7 and 99 pg/mL. This suggests that measuring survivin could help veterinarians identify the presence of cancer in dogs, making it a potential tool for diagnosis.
People also search for: dog cancer symptoms · how to diagnose cancer in dogs · survivin blood test for dogs
Abstract
BACKGROUND: In contrast to human medicine, only a small number of serum tumor markers are established in veterinary medicine even though they are a non-invasive diagnostic tool. OBJECTIVES: This study examined whether survivin could be suitable as a potential canine serum tumor marker. METHODS: This study measured the serum survivin concentrations of dogs with mammary tumors (n = 33), squamous cell carcinoma (n = 9), soft-tissue sarcoma (n = 18) and multicentric lymphoma (n = 22), using a commercially available, competitive immunoassay kit (BlueGene). The serum survivin concentrations were compared with those of a healthy control group (n = 20) and a control group of dogs with non-neoplastic diseases (n = 17). RESULTS: Dogs with malignant tumors had serum survivin concentrations between 15 and 5,906 pg/mL (median, 72 pg/mL), those in the healthy group ranged from 7 to 99 pg/mL (median, 21 pg/mL) and those in the group of dogs suffering from non-neoplastic diseases from 15 to 93 pg/mL (median, 42 pg/mL). The differences in the survivin concentrations between the healthy dogs and dogs with malignant tumors and between the dogs with non-neoplastic diseases and those with malignant tumors were significant (< 0.001 and= 0.006, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The serum survivin concentrations in dogs with malignant tumors, with some exceptions, are higher than in dogs with benign tumors and dogs that do not suffer from a malignancy. Therefore, survivin can provide information on the presence of malignant tumors and be used as a tumor marker in dogs.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34697925/