Using the Canine Mast Cell Tumor Panel for Prognosis Guidance
By Chanran Ganta, Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory
Canine cutaneous mast cell tumor (MCT) is a common neoplastic disease in dogs compromising up to 20 percent of all cutaneous neoplasms. The diagnosis of canine mast cell tumors are usually straightforward, but unfortunately establishing an accurate prognosis was not very likely until now.
Recently, most canine mast cell tumors are histopatholgically being graded according to the 2 –tier grading system due to superior consistency in grading by the pathologists. The Grading is based on mitotic index and morphological features in MCT.
Histopathological grading provides tumor prognosis in a broad sense but prognostic panel testing assists in determining a more accurate, patient-tailored prognosis that will aid in administering specific therapeutic protocols (see figure 1).
Guidance when using the panel is shown in table 1.
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Figure 1
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Table 1
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This panel is performed on tumor biopsy specimens.
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