Prognostic value of nuclear morphometry in spontaneous canine sebaceous carcinomas: a preliminary report

Abstract

Stained cytological specimens from eight canine sebaceous carcinomas (CSCs) were analyzed by computer-assisted nuclear morphometry in order to evaluate the prognostic value of this technique. Four tumors had metastases in regional lymph nodes at the time of the diagnosis. The morphometric parameters evaluated in this study were mean nuclear area (MNA, µm2), mean nuclear perimeter (MNP, µm), mean nuclear diameter (D mean, µm), minimum nuclear diameter (D min, µm), and maximum nuclear diameter (D max, µm). Associations between MNA, MNP, D mean, D min, and D max in non-metastatic and metastatic tumors were assessed using the analysis of variance/least significant difference test (Statistica 6.0, StatSoft, USA) at a level of significance P < 0.05. The correlation between nuclear morphometric parameters and metastases to the regional lymph nodes was evaluated using Pearson’s correlation test (P < 0.05). The mean values of these parameters were significantly greater in dogs with lymph node metastases compared to parameters of tumor cells from dogs which were lymph node-negative. Significant differences in MNA, MNP, D min and D mean were seen between metastasizing and non-metastasizing neoplastic formations. The results from our investigation showed that nuclear morphometry is an objective and reproducible procedure that could be used as additional tool for evaluating the metastatic potential of CSCs.