Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Dog with rectal mast cell tumor showing low aggression signs
By Tay, Lyc & Brockley, L·Published in Australian veterinary journal·2025·Advanced Vetcare, Australia·View original on PubMed →
PetCaseFinder translated the abstract of this peer-reviewed paper into plain English so pet owners can read it. We do not publish original research — every detail traces back to the citation above. How we work →
Original publication title: Rectal mast cell tumour in a dog with lower grade features of biological aggressiveness.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
An 8-year-old female Australian Silky Terrier was brought to the vet because she was feeling unwell, shaking, lethargic, not eating, and hadn’t defecated for 2-3 days. The vet found a mass in her rectum, which was surgically removed and diagnosed as a mast cell tumor (MCT). After surgery, she received chemotherapy with vinblastine and prednisolone. Remarkably, she has been doing well with no signs of the tumor returning, 30 weeks after surgery, and remains healthy 9 months after her diagnosis.
People also search for: dog rectal mass treatment · Australian Silky Terrier mast cell tumor · dog chemotherapy for cancer
Abstract
An 8-year-old, neutered female, Australian Silky Terrier presented to her primary veterinarian with non-specific clinical signs of general unwellness, shaking, lethargy, inappetence and no defecation for 2-3 days. A rectal mass was found on physical examination. The rectal mass was surgically resected and histopathology was consistent with a mast cell tumour (MCT) with a mitotic count of 0 per 2.37mm. The dog had follow-up chemotherapy protocol comprising of vinblastine and prednisolone and was doing well with no evidence of tumour recurrence 30 weeks post surgical resection and is still alive and clinically normal at the time of writing, 9 months post initial diagnosis. Primary MCTs of the gastrointestinal tract have previously been reported to be associated with a poor prognosis. This is the first report of a canine rectal mast cell tumour with lower grade features of biological aggressiveness and a possibly more favourable prognosis compared with the current published literature.
Find similar cases for your pet
PetCaseFinder finds other peer-reviewed reports of pets with the same symptoms, plus a plain-English summary of what was tried across them.
Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39633241/