Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Removing normal-sized lymph nodes helps stage dog skin mast cell
By Ferrari, R et al.·Published in Veterinary and comparative oncology·2018·Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Italy·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: The impact of extirpation of non-palpable/normal-sized regional lymph nodes on staging of canine cutaneous mast cell tumours: A multicentric retrospective study.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of 93 dogs with skin tumors called cutaneous mast cell tumors (cMCT) underwent surgery to remove the main tumor along with nearby lymph nodes that were not visibly swollen. The study found that nearly half of these lymph nodes contained cancer cells, even when they appeared normal. This suggests that removing these lymph nodes is important for accurately staging the cancer and understanding how advanced it is. The findings indicate that even if a lymph node looks healthy, it could still be affected by cancer, which can impact treatment decisions.
People also search for: dog skin tumor treatment · cutaneous mast cell tumor lymph nodes · dog cancer staging surgery
Abstract
Metastasis to regional lymph nodes (RLNs) in dogs with cutaneous mast cell tumour (cMCT) has been correlated with shortened survival time and higher risk of spread to distant sites. In the present study, extirpation of non-palpable or normal-sized RLNs was included in the surgical management of cMCT in dogs. Correlations between histological nodal status (HN0-3) and tumour variables were analysed. Ninety-three dogs with single cMCT without distant metastasis that underwent wide surgical excision of the primary tumour and extirpation of non-palpable or normal-sized RLN were included. The association between HN (HN0 vs HN > 0; HN0-1 vs HN2-3) and tumour variables (site, longest diameter, ulceration, 3-tier and 2-tier histological grades) was analysed by a generalized linear model with multinomial error. Then, 33 (35.5%) RLNs were HN0, 14 (15%) were HN1, 26 (28%) were HN2 and 20 (21.5%) were HN3. The presence of positive (HN > 0) RLN was significantly associated with cMCT larger than 3 cm. No other association was statistically significant. Non-palpable/normal-sized RLN in dogs with cMCT can harbour histologically detectable metastatic disease in nearly half of the cases. Extirpation of the RLN should always perfomed to obtain a correct staging of the disease, even in the absence of clinical suspicion of metastasis. Further studies should evaluate the possible therapeutical effect of the tumour burden reduction obtained by exrtipartion of a positive RLN.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29893066/