What is it about?
Breslow thickness and Clark level are prognostic factors for human cutaneous melanomas. We investigated the same features in canine cutaneous melanocytic tumours finding that it can be useful to evaluate them when histological diagnosis is uncertain. Furthermore, we showed that tumour thickness was a prognostic factor, being greater in dogs with shorter overall survival and disease-free time.
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Why is it important?
We provided some handy cut-offs to be applied for diagnosis and estimation of prognosis. Although they need further confirmation, they could already be useful additional information that can help distinguish benign to malignant tumors and appraising the possible patient outcome. It is well known that there are subsets of melanocytic tumours with an unexpected clinical behaviour, so, considering the crescent interest of pet owners, the identification of new prognostic parameters that could improve the capability to estimate prognosis are strongly advisable.
Perspectives
Publishing this paper I hope we can provide useful information for routine diagnostics. Additionally, this study could add a little piece to the puzzle in a comparative point of view, since several similarities are shared between canine and human melanomas and increasing effort is devoted to the investigation of the dog as a possible pre-clinical model.
DVM, PhD, Doctor Europaeus Serenella Silvestri
Universita degli Studi di Perugia
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Tumor Thickness and Modified Clark Level in Canine Cutaneous Melanocytic Tumors, Veterinary Pathology, September 2018, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0300985818798094.
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