Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Skin and soft tissue tumor temperatures in cats measured
By Nitrini, Andressa Gianotti Campos et al.·Published in Journal of feline medicine and surgery·2021·Department of Surgery, Brazil·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Thermographic assessment of skin and soft tissue tumors in cats.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A group of cats with skin and soft tissue tumors underwent infrared thermography to measure the temperature of their tumors. The study found that malignant tumors had higher temperatures than benign ones, with an average of 35.4°C for malignant tumors compared to 34.5°C for benign ones. This temperature difference could help veterinarians identify whether a tumor is cancerous, as a temperature above 34.7°C was linked to malignancy. The findings suggest that thermography could be a useful tool for diagnosing and assessing the severity of tumors in cats.
People also search for: cat skin tumor symptoms · how to tell if a cat tumor is cancerous · infrared thermography for cat tumors
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: This study set out to determine the average temperature of skin and soft tissue tumors in cats using infrared thermography and to investigate correlations between thermographic findings and tumor type. Correlations between thermographic findings, histologic subtype and tumor grade were also investigated in cases of feline injection site sarcoma (FISS). METHODS: Thermographic images of normal skin and skin overlying neoplastic lesions were prospectively obtained. Following thermographic assessment, tumors were resected and submitted to histopathologic and immunohistochemical analysis. Mean temperatures detected in tumoral areas were compared between different tumor types and between FISSs of different histologic subtypes and grades. RESULTS: Thermograms obtained from 11 healthy cats and 31 cats presenting with skin and soft tissue tumors (eight benign and 23 malignant tumors, including 21 FISSs) were evaluated in this study. Thermal behavior varied widely in normal skin, as well as in skin overlying neoplastic lesions. Mean temperatures were significantly higher in malignant compared with benign tumors (35.4 ± 1.8ºC and 34.5 ± 1.7ºC respectively; = 0.01), with a temperature above 34.7ºC being associated with malignancy (sensitivity 76%, specificity 80%; = 0.01). Temperatures detected in FISS did not differ significantly according to histologic subtype ( = 0.91) or tumor grade (0.46), or between primary and recurring tumors (0.25). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Infrared thermography proved to be a sensitive and effective method for detection of temperature differences between malignant and benign skin and soft tissue tumors in cats. Thermographic assessment may contribute to diagnosis and prognostic estimation in feline oncologic patients.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33019847/