Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Grading dog skin mast cell tumors using cytology samples
By Hergt, Franziska et al.·Published in Veterinary clinical pathology·2016·Clinic of Small Animal Internal Medicine, Germany·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Use of a 2-tier histologic grading system for canine cutaneous mast cell tumors on cytology specimens.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A dog with a skin lump was diagnosed with a mast cell tumor (MCT), which is a common type of skin cancer in dogs. The tumor was evaluated using a new two-tier grading system that helps determine how aggressive the cancer is. While the cytology (cell sample) results matched the histology (tissue sample) results in most cases, there were some discrepancies, meaning that the cytology alone may not be reliable for grading the tumor. The findings suggest that while cytology can be useful for an initial assessment, further studies are needed to improve its accuracy.
People also search for: dog skin lump mast cell tumor · canine mast cell tumor treatment · how to grade mast cell tumors in dogs
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Mast cell tumors (MCT) represent the most common malignant skin tumor in the dog. Diagnosis of an MCT can be achieved through cytologic examination of a fine-needle aspirate. However, the grade of the tumor is an important prognostic marker and currently requires histologic assessment. Recently a 2-tier histologic grading system based on nuclear features including number of mitoses, multinucleated cells, bizarre nuclei, and karyomegaly was proposed. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to assess if the cytomorphologic criteria proposed in the 2-tier histologic grading system are applicable to cytology specimens. METHODS: A total of 141 MCT specimens reported as grade I, II, or III according to the Patnaik system with both histologic specimens and fine-needle aspirates available were histologically and cytologically reevaluated in a retrospective study. RESULTS: According to the 2-tier grading system, 38 cases were diagnosed histologically as high-grade and 103 as low-grade MCT. Cytologic grading resulted in 36 high-grade and 105 low-grade tumors. Agreement between histologic and cytologic grading based on the 2-tier grading system was achieved in 133 cases (sensitivity 86.8%, specificity 97.1%, kappa value 0.853), but 5 high-grade tumors on histology were classified as low-grade on cytology. CONCLUSION: Cytologic grading of MCT in the dog is helpful for initial assessment. However, the reliability of cytology using the 2-tier grading system is considered inadequate at this point. Prospective studies including clinical outcome should be pursued to further determine diagnostic accuracy of cytologic mast cell grading.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27483044/