Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Ultrasound often misses early liver or spleen spread in dogs
By Pecceu, Evi et al.·Published in Veterinary and comparative oncology·2020·Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies & Roslin Institute, United Kingdom·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Ultrasound is a poor predictor of early or overt liver or spleen metastasis in dogs with high-risk mast cell tumours.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A study involving dogs with high-risk mast cell tumors (MCT) found that routine abdominal ultrasounds were not very effective at predicting whether the cancer had spread to the liver or spleen. Out of 82 dogs, 18% had early metastasis and 7% had overt metastasis, but the ultrasound results often did not match the actual findings from fine needle aspiration tests. Dogs with early metastasis had a median survival time of about 322 days, while those with overt metastasis lived around 81 days. This suggests that while early metastasis is concerning, some dogs can still have a good outcome with proper treatment.
People also search for: dog mast cell tumor treatment · ultrasound for dog cancer · dog liver metastasis symptoms
Abstract
Conflicting evidence exists regarding the importance of routine abdominal ultrasound (US) with hepatic and splenic fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology during staging of canine mast cell tumours (MCT). The objective of this study was to correlate ultrasonographic and cytologic findings in dogs with strictly defined high-risk MCTs and to determine the influence on outcome. Our hypothesis was that US poorly predicts visceral metastasis in high-risk MCTs and that early metastasis is associated with improved outcome when compared to overt metastasis. US of liver and spleen correlated to cytologic results, categorized as no metastasis, early metastasis or overt metastasis. Of 82 dogs prospectively enrolled, 18% had early visceral metastasis and 7% had overt metastasis on cytology; 67% with visceral metastasis had regional LN metastasis. US was a poor predictor of metastasis with sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value for the spleen of 67%, 68%, 21% and 94%, respectively and for the liver of 29%, 93%, 56% and 82%, respectively. Median time to progression (TTP) for dogs with no metastasis, early metastasis and overt metastasis was not reached, 305 and 69 days, respectively (P < .001). Median survival time (MST) for the 3 groups were not reached, 322 and 81 days, respectively (P < .001). High Patnaik or Kiupel grade, early metastasis, overt metastasis and adequate local control were significantly associated with outcome. Early visceral metastasis was associated with poorer outcome compared to dogs without metastasis, however, a subset of dogs experienced long-term control.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31863546/