The purpose of this study was to evaluate a possible association between mammary tumour size and increasing degree of malignancy. Data of 625 dogs with a total of 1459 mammary tumours were analysed retrospectively. 80.3% dogs were intact, mean age at diagnosis was 9.7 ± 2.5 years, 75.8% were pure breed dogs. Median body weight was 20.0 kg. Malignant tumours (n = 580) were significantly larger than

We report a precision medicine platform that evaluates the probability of chemotherapy drug efficacy for canine lymphoma by combining ex vivo chemosensitivity and immunophenotyping assays with computational modelling. We isolated live cancer cells from fresh fine needle aspirates of affected lymph nodes and collected post‐treatment clinical responses in 261 canine lymphoma patients scheduled to receive

Canine mammary tumours (CMTs) are the most prevalent neoplasms in female dogs. Despite the high incidence of such tumours, a lack of easily accessible biomarkers still impedes early diagnosis of malignant CMTs. Herein we identify thymidylate synthetase (TYMS), hyaluronan and proteoglycan link protein 1 (HAPLN1) and insulin‐like growth factor‐binding protein 5 (IGFBP5) as CMT antigens eliciting corresponding

Lymphoma is the most common hematological malignancy in dogs and its etiology is largely unknown. The presence of canine vector borne agents (CVBD) in lymphoma tissues has been described and its causative effects questioned.

Histopathologic surgical margin assessment in veterinary patients is an imprecise science with assessment limited to a small proportion of the surgical margin due to time and finances. Incomplete excision of canine mast cell tumours (MCTs) alters treatment recommendations and prognosis. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a novel imaging modality that has been reported in a single veterinary study

Canine oral papillary squamous cell carcinoma (COPSCC) is a rare neoplasm and although locally invasive it carries a favourable prognosis following wide surgical excision. Radiotherapy has been reported to be effective as an adjunct treatment to surgery. However, limited information is available on the role of radiotherapy as single treatment. This single‐institution retrospective study describes a

Numerous studies have described the prognostic factors of canine and feline mammary carcinomas (MCs), that is, variables that predict patient survival after diagnosis. But how does survival estimation evolve in patients that escaped early death from their cancer? In human oncology, conditional survival (CS), the probability of surviving X further years when cancer patients have already survived Y years

Osteosarcoma (OSA) arising from the digits, metatarsal and metacarpal bones is rare and may carry a better prognosis compared with other locations. The aim of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the biological behaviour, the progression free interval (PFI), the survival time (ST) and evaluate the effect of adjuvant chemotherapy for OSA affecting these bones. Medical records from two academic

This study aimed to determine a reliable therapeutic biomarker for localized small intestinal lymphoma (SIL) in dogs based on clinical and histopathological features. We retrospectively investigated 84 dogs with localized SIL, including 36 dogs receiving surgery and 48 dogs receiving chemotherapy. The dogs receiving surgery were divided into two subgroups: 18 dogs (group 1) with overall survival (OS)

Tumour stage has been demonstrated to have prognostic significance in canine oral malignant melanoma (OMM). Various evaluation techniques of positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) have been reported for staging of head‐and‐neck tumours in people, but canine‐specific data are limited, and reports for CT accuracy have been variable. In this prospective study, the head/neck of client‐owned

Since companion dogs have the same living environment as humans, they are a good animal model for the study of human diseases; this is especially true of canine spontaneous mammary tumours models. A better understanding of the natural history and molecular mechanisms of canine mammary tumour is of great significance in comparative medicine. Here, we collected canine mammary tumour cases and then assayed

Epithelial membrane antigen (EMA) is one of the most widely used diagnostic immunohistochemical markers for human meningioma. To date, no published study on EMA expression in formalin‐fixed paraffin‐embedded (FFPE) tissue samples of canine meningioma is available. Here, we describe the results of an immunohistochemical study on 25 FFPE canine meningiomas using a monoclonal anti‐human EMA antibody.

Cutaneous mast cell tumors (MCTs) are the most frequent malignant skin tumors in dogs. Mutations in the c‐KIT proto‐oncogene are correlated with the pathogenesis and aggressiveness of MCTs. To date, studies have focused on c‐KIT mutations and KIT protein localization, with a general lack of mRNA‐level analyses. In this study, c‐KIT mRNA expression was investigated in canine MCTs by RNA in situ hybridization

Canine mast cell tumours (MCTs) typically spread to lymph nodes (LNs) before reaching distant sites, and LN assessment is an important part of MCT staging. Sentinel LN (SLN) mapping techniques to identify draining LNs are being developed and could improve the accuracy of MCT staging. The primary objective of this feasibility study was to determine the safety and effectiveness of contrast‐enhanced ultrasound

Canine melanoma is a malignant tumour that exhibits aggressive behaviour, and frequently metastasizes to regional lymph nodes and distant sites. Currently, there are no effective treatments or practical prognostic biomarkers for canine melanoma. The enzyme kynurenine 3‐monooxygenase (KMO), which plays a central role in the tryptophan metabolism, has previously been identified as the main pathogenic

Exocrine pancreatic carcinoma is uncommon in the dog and the veterinary literature surrounding the disease is minimal. Twenty‐three cases of canine exocrine pancreatic carcinoma were reviewed in a retrospective manner to obtain information on clinical presentation, behaviour and survival associated with the disease. Presenting clinical signs were nonspecific and included anorexia, lethargy, vomiting

Fasting has been shown to decrease chemotherapy‐associated adverse events (AEs), in part through insulin‐like growth factor (IGF‐1) reduction, and may induce a protective effect on normal cells during chemotherapy treatment in mice and people. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of fasting on constitutional, bone marrow and gastrointestinal (GI) AEs, and serum glucose, IGF‐1 and insulin

Statins are inhibitors of the mevalonate cascade that is responsible for cholesterol biosynthesis and the formation of intermediate metabolites, farnesyl pyrophosphate (FPP) and geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate (GGPP) used in the prenylation of proteins. Although statins are widely used in the treatment of hypercholesterolemia, recent studies suggest that they also inhibit proliferation of tumour cells

Canine osteosarcoma (OSA) is an aggressive bone tumour in dogs. Standard‐of‐care treatment typically results in relatively short survival times; thus, alternative treatments are needed to confer a survival advantage. It has been shown that OSA is an immunogenic tumour, suggesting that immune modulation may result in superior outcomes. A cryopreserved, Listeria‐based OSA vaccine was recently developed

Little evidence is available regarding the prognosis of dogs with malignant ovarian tumours. The objective of this retrospective study was to describe the outcomes and determine the prognostic factors for dogs with malignant ovarian tumours following treatment, including surgery with or without adjuvant therapy. Eighteen dogs were studied, their median age was 12 years (range: 7‐15 years), and their

Maxillectomy is poorly described for the management of oral tumours in cats and is occasionally not recommended because of the high complication rate and sub‐optimal outcome reported in cats treated with mandibulectomy. The purpose of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the complications and oncologic outcome in cats treated with maxillectomy. Sixty cats were included in the study. Maxillectomy

Perioperative administration of desmopressin has shown to significantly decrease rates of local recurrence and metastasis, and increase survival times in dogs with grade II and III mammary carcinomas. The objective of this study was to compare the oncologic outcome of cats with mammary carcinoma treated with bilateral mastectomy with or without perioperative administration of desmopressin. Medical

The majority of the known prognostic factors in dogs with lymphoma have been evaluated before treatment commences or at the time of diagnosis. Prognostic factors evaluated during the initial phase of treatment are less described but may provide important clinical information. In this retrospective study, 82 canine lymphoma patients were categorized according to the weight change between diagnosis and

Canine insulinoma has historically been associated with a poor prognosis; however, prolonged survival times have recently been reported. Prognostic indicators that are available preoperatively are of limited predictive accuracy, and consensus on post‐operative treatment recommendations is lacking. The objectives of this study were to describe outcomes in dogs with insulinoma treated surgically, and

Anti‐angiogenic therapy is a cancer treatment strategy targeting new blood vessel formation. Microvessel density (MVD) is a histopathological method for evaluating angiogenesis and endoglin is used as an activated endothelial marker in human medicine. The assessment of the treatment effect using MVD is difficult because it is a non‐repeatable method. To develop a repeatable method for evaluating angiogenesis

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) uses near‐infrared light waves to generate real‐time, high‐resolution images on the microscopic scale similar to low power histopathology. Previous studies have demonstrated the use of OCT for real‐time surgical margin assessment for human breast cancer. The use of OCT for canine mammary tumours (CMT) could allow intra‐operative visualisation of residual tumour at

Chemotherapy‐induced diarrhoea (CID) is a frequent chemotherapy adverse event in dogs. Yet, there is currently no consensus regarding its management. Smectite is a natural medical clay, widely used in the treatment of acute diarrhoea in humans. The objectives of this study were to assess the efficacy of smectite in the management of CID in dogs, and to collect epidemiological data on CID. For each

Canine pituitary tumours are increasingly treated with stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT). Here, we report clinical outcomes in dogs treated with single‐fraction SRT; we also explore technical aspects of SRT treatment planning. A single‐institution retrospective study was performed, including any dog with a pituitary mass (PM) that was treated using a standardized single‐fraction (16 Gy) SRT protocol

Canine cutaneous mast cell tumours (MCTs) represent a common neoplasm in veterinary practice. Several reported techniques are available to guide surgical excision. Our study examined one hundred cutaneous MCTs that were excised surgically using a modified proportional margin approach. A 2 cm lateral margin upper limit was applied for any tumour diameter that exceeded this size with a deep surgical

Thyroid carcinoma develops spontaneously in dogs, with only 25% to 50% of cases amenable to surgery at diagnosis. Local control for unresectable tumours can be provided with external beam radiotherapy. The aim of this retrospective study is to describe the safety and efficacy of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for treatment of canine thyroid carcinoma. Twenty‐three dogs met inclusion criteria;

Pretreatment D‐dimer levels have been reported to predict survival in several types of malignancies in human patients. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of pretreatment D‐dimer level in dogs with intermediate to high‐grade non‐Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). In a prospective, randomized, double‐blind study of F14512 vs etoposide phosphate, we assessed the prognostic value of

Feline oral squamous cell carcinoma (FOSCC) is characterized by high local invasiveness and early bone lysis. The late diagnosis largely limits the efficacy of therapy and increases treatment‐related morbidity. The aim of this exploratory study was to assess the methylation pattern of 10 candidate genes and TP53 mutational status in histologic samples of FOSCC. Results were compared with normal oral

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an optical imaging modality that has been investigated for real‐time surgical margin evaluation in human breast cancer patients. Previous veterinary OCT studies have been limited to surgical margin imaging for soft tissue sarcoma (STS) tumours. To the authors knowledge, OCT has never been used to characterize or evaluate other types of neoplasia in dogs. The goal

Temozolomide is a novel oral alkylating agent that has schedule‐dependent clinical activity in human malignant glioma and metastatic melanoma. Little is known about the efficacy of temozolomide in the treatment of canine solid cancers, where broad range of dosages have been used but no maximally tolerated dose (MTD) had been established. The aim of this this open‐label, dose‐escalating study was to

Metastatic disease represents a serious and often fatal development in patients with solid tumours, including women with breast cancer and dogs with mammary tumours. Therefore, preventing and treating metastatic disease has remained a priority in cancer research. Desmopressin, a synthetic derivative of vasopressin, traditionally used to treat patients with bleeding disorders, has been proposed as a

Haemoperitoneum secondary to ruptured splenic tumours can be either benign or malignant in origin. The majority of previous studies of canine haemoperitoneum have been retrospective, which are associated with well‐recognized biases, such as the potential to underappreciate the diversity of outcomes in a complex presentation such as haemoperitoneum. This study seeks to prospectively define perioperative

Smaller dogs are known to have an increased risk of chemotherapy‐induced myelosuppression for doxorubicin, mitoxantrone and melphalan. This retrospective study aimed to determine if dogs <15 kg and <10 kg experienced greater degrees of myelosuppression following treatment with carboplatin chemotherapy compared with dogs ≥15 kg. One hundred and one dogs treated with carboplatin for a variety of malignancies

Canine mammary tumours (CMTs) are regarded as invasive with a high rate of recurrent and metastasis in intact female dogs. Tumour diagnosis, therefore, is an important step in predicting and monitoring tumour progression. This study was designed to identify protein expression on CMTs by employing a proteomic approach. The primary cell culture from benign mixed tumour, simple carcinoma, complex carcinoma

Localized histiocytic sarcoma may occur as a primary lesion in periarticular tissues of large appendicular joints. Treatment options for the primary lesion include radical surgical excision, radiation therapy (RT), or both, in combination with chemotherapy for potential systemic metastases. In an effort to better characterize the time to progression (TTP) following surgical vs non‐surgical approaches

The development of safe and reliable hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) protocols to treat human patients with malignant and non-malignant blood disorders was highly influenced by preclinical studies obtained in random-bred canines. The surmounted barriers included recognizing the crucial importance of histocompatibility matching, establishing long-term donor hematopoietic cell engraftment, preventing

While current lymphoma therapies induce remission in most dogs, drug-resistant relapse is common, creating a need for novel agents. Rabacfosadine (RAB), a double prodrug of the acyclic nucleotide phosphonate 9-(2-phosphonylmethoxyethel) guanine (PMEG), preferentially targets lymphoma cells with reduced systemic toxicity compared with PMEG. Previous studies evaluating RAB administered every 21 days

Feline sarcoids (or cutaneous fibropapillomas) are rare dermal neoplasms. There are currently no reported statistics concerning their clinical behaviour. Our objective with this retrospective, multi-institutional study was to describe the clinical presentation and biological behaviour of sarcoids in cats and to determine the oncologic outcome following surgical resection. Medical records from a laboratory

Melanoma is a fast-growing tumour in dogs and represents 7% of the total malignant neoplasms from the skin and is the most common tumour found in the oral cavity. In these tumours, high expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is associated with a poor prognosis. The aim of this study was to verify if the overexpression of COX-2 is related to the modulation of lymphocytes and if it is associated with

Progressive disease is common following anal sacculectomy for apocrine gland anal sac adenocarcinoma (AGASACA); additional therapy may prolong survival. Adherence to medical recommendations influences therapeutic success in humans. The purpose of this study was to assess the adherence to follow-up recommendations in dogs with AGASACA. Medical records of patients that underwent anal sacculectomy for

Tonsillar metastasis from distant primary tumours has not been described in dogs, and reports are rare in humans. The aims of this study were to determine whether tumour metastasis occurs to the canine palatine tonsils and evaluate whether afferent lymphatics drain to the palatine tonsils via skull indirect computed tomography lymphangiography (ICTL). Retrospective review of the diagnostic laboratory

The cover image is based on the ORIGINAL ARTICLE Canine histiocytic sarcoma cell lines with SHP2 p.Glu76Gln or p.Glu76Ala mutations are sensitive to allosteric SHP2 inhibitor SHP099 by Hiroyuki Tani et al., https://doi.org/10.1111/vco.12524.

Key advances in our understanding of immunobiology and the immunosuppressive mechanisms of the tumour microenvironment have led to significant breakthroughs in manipulating the immune system to successfully treat cancer. Remarkable therapeutic responses have occurred with tumours that carry a high mutational burden. In these cases, pre-existing tumour-specific T cells can be rejuvenated via checkpoint

Canine mammary carcinoma represents a model for the study of human breast cancer, although the prognostic value of various clinical, histological and immunohistochemical parameters has shown contradictory results. A prospective study, through a 4-year follow-up, was performed in 77 patients with mammary carcinoma to analyse the association between histological diagnosis, grade of malignancy, peritumoral

The use of conventional multi-fractionated radiotherapy for the treatment of glial tumours is well documented in the literature. Recently, stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) has become more widely available allowing for hypo-fractionated protocols; however, its usefulness in the treatment of canine intracranial gliomas is largely undetermined. We conducted a retrospective analysis, including 21 dogs diagnosed

Canine B‐cell lymphoma is one of the most common haematopoietic neoplasms in veterinary medicine, and it is considered a relevant model for human diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma. Although the standard treatment consisting of multi‐drug chemotherapy is effective in most cases, treatment is often challenging because of relapse and drug resistance. The adoptive transfer of autologous T cells genetically

There are few published reports of canine rhabdomyosarcomas. In human paediatrics, rhabdomyosarcomas account for 5%-10% of all tumours and >50% of soft tissue sarcomas. They have an aggressive biologic behaviour; most patients develop diffuse metastatic disease. Ezrin, a cytoskeleton linker protein, has been correlated with metastasis in a number of tumours, including rhabdomyosarcomas. The goal of

We previously reported that eBAT, an EGF‐targeted angiotoxin, was safe and it improved the overall survival for dogs with splenic haemangiosarcoma when added to the standard of care in a single cycle of three administrations in the minimal residual disease setting. Our objective for the SRCBST‐2 trial was to assess whether increased dosing through multiple cycles of eBAT would be well tolerated and

MicroRNA-214 (miR-214), a pivotal tumour-suppressive miRNA, is downregulated in canine hemangiosarcoma (HSA) cells. Although these tumour-suppressive miRNAs are potential therapeutic agents, their clinical efficacy may be limited because of their vulnerability to RNase-rich microenvironments and low in vivo transfection rates. We developed synthetic miR-214 s with enhanced cytotoxicity, RNase resistance

Canine melanomas and mast cell tumours (MCTs) frequently metastasize to lymph nodes, worsening prognosis compared with dogs without metastasis. Sentinel lymph node (SLN) evaluation is more specific than evaluation of the lymph node closest to the tumour, which may not be the draining lymph node. Computed tomography lymphangiography (CTL) allows for SLN identification and one study of canine mammary

Canine malignant melanoma is a common cancer with a high mortality rate and is a clinically important disease. DNA methylation has been considered to be a potential tumorigenic mechanism through aberrant DNA methylation at promoter region which represses gene transcription. Global hypomethylation could also facilitate chromosome instability. There are few reports regarding DNA methylation in canine

Identification of metastatic disease critically impacts the care and prognosis of patients with neoplasia. Multiple techniques exist for identifying the sentinel or first lymph node(s) that receive draining tumour lymph. Identification of the sentinel lymph node enables accurate tissue sampling for determination of lymphatic metastasis. The aims of this study were to develop a computed tomography (CT)