Retrospective study of canine epithelial and melanocytic tumors

Abstract

Out of the total number of canine tumors examined at the Department of pathology based on biopsy and section materials over the last five years skin tumors and mammary gland tumors were proved to be the two largest groups diagnosed in 33.4% and 36% of cases, respectively. Cutaneous tumors were diagnosed in 211 cases, i.e., in 123 (58.3%) male dogs and 88 (41.7%) bitches, of different breeds, on average 7 years old. Among the total number of 211 skin tumors, 32 types of cutaneous neoplasms were diagnosed, with epithelial and melanocytic tumors being the most predominant, followed by hematopoietic tumors and mesenchymal tumors of the skin and soft tissues. In our bioptic and section materials, epithelial and melanocytic skin tumors were the most frequent -123 cases (58.75%) with four subgroups within the group tumors with adnexal differentiation - 66 cases (53.23% of all epithelial and melanocytic skin tumors), epidermal tumors - 25 cases (20.16% of all epithelial and melanocytic skin tumors), tumors without squamous or adnexal differentiation -16 cases (12.90% of all epithelial and melanocytic skin tumors) and finally melanocytic tumors -14 cases (11.29% of all epithelial and melanocytic skin tumors). The age of dogs with epithelial and melanocytic cutaneous tumors ranged between 5 months to 15 years. The fact that the number of skin tumors diagnosed in 1999 was doubled in 2002 is of particular importance, which may be, the result of increasingly high interest of clinicians for biopsy-based diagnosis.