Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Low mast cell levels in dog mammary tumors mean worse outlook
By Ariyarathna, H et al.·Published in Journal of comparative pathology·2020·School of Veterinary Science·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Low Stromal Mast Cell Density in Canine Mammary Gland Tumours Predicts a Poor Prognosis.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A study found that dogs with mammary gland tumors (breast tumors) that had low levels of certain immune cells called mast cells were more likely to have a poor outcome. Specifically, tumors with 10 or fewer mast cells in a specific area were linked to an 81% chance of spreading to other parts of the body, while those with more than 10 mast cells had only a 9.5% chance of metastasizing. This suggests that checking the number of mast cells in these tumors could help veterinarians better predict how aggressive the cancer might be and guide treatment decisions.
People also search for: dog mammary tumor prognosis · canine breast cancer treatment · mast cell density in dog tumors
Abstract
Tumour histological classification and grade are frequently used to predict the prognosis of canine mammary gland tumours. While these techniques provide some information about tumour behaviour, it is currently difficult to predict which tumours will metastasize. Mast cell density has been shown to predict metastasis in human breast cancer. The present study investigated whether the average mast cell density in 10 high-power (×400) microscopical fields (10 HPFs), evaluated by toluidine blue staining, similarly predicted the behaviour of canine mammary gland tumours. Mast cell density was evaluated in 53 canine mammary neoplasms for which the clinical outcome was known. Stromal mast cell density in malignant tumours that had subsequently developed radiographical evidence of metastasis (n = 21) was significantly lower (P <0.001) than in malignant tumours that did not show evidence of metastases (n = 20) or in benign tumours (n = 12). The density of stromal mast cells that best predicted the disease outcome was ≤10/10 HPFs. Eighty-one percent of malignant tumours with ≤10 stromal mast cells/10 HPFs subsequently metastasized, while only 9.5% of malignant tumours with >10 stromal mast cells/10 HPFs developed metastases. There was a positive correlation between stromal mast cell density and survival time (r = 0.50, P <0.001). These findings suggest that assessing stromal mast cell density using toluidine blue staining may represent an easy to perform and cost-effective histopathological measure that, in conjunction with classification and grading, could better predict the behaviour of canine mammary neoplasms.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32138840/