Risk factors for the occurrence and development of paraneoplastic ophthalmopathies in dogs and cats

Abstract

The frequency of oncological diseases in animals is becoming more and more every year. The development of diagnostic studies, the development of new treatment protocols contributes in some cases to improving the prognosis of the disease. However, a big problem is the development of paraneoplastic syndromes in various oncological pathologies, which leads, on the contrary, to a deterioration in the prognosis. There is no specific treatment for paraneoplastic processes – improvement of the condition and disappearance of paraneoplastic manifestations is the result of treatment of the primary tumor. Cancer-associated ophthalmopathies, such as paraneoplastic syndrome, are no exception. In addition to secondary eye pathologies, intraocular neoplasms are also found against the background of oncological processes. Intraocular tumors in animals are relatively rare neoplasms, there are both malignant and benign tumor processes. In dogs, we most often encounter pigmented melanomas, less often with squamous cell carcinoma and sarcomas of an unclear phenotype. In cats, the most common intraocular pathology is melanoma, followed by lymphoma and posttraumatic sarcoma of the orbit of the eye is not uncommon. They can develop in both elderly animals and animals of a younger age group. This article presents the results of studies of risk factors for the occurrence and development of immune-mediated paraneoplastic ophthalmopathies in dogs and cats. The article discusses the possible causes of the development of ophthalmic paraneoplastic pathologies, the etiopathogenesis of which includes a number of factors. The possibilities of innovative diagnostic methods, such as magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography, complete ophthalmological examination using modern ophthalmological equipment, are considered. And the variants of morphological diagnoses are presented, in which cancer-associated ophthalmopathies most often develop.