Feline malignant mammary tumors. I. Morphology and biology: some comparisons with human and canine mammary carcinomas
Weijer, K.; Head, K.W.; Misdorp, W.; Hampe, J.F.
Journal of the National Cancer Institute 49(6): 1697-1704
1972
ISSN/ISBN: 0027-8874 PMID: 4346020 Document Number: 45222
The morphology and biology of 179 malignant mammary tumours from 170 cats are described. The site was nearly equally distributed among the four pairs of glands. The recorded sex distribution was 114 intact females, 40 ovariectomized females (average age at spaying, 5.8 years), and 2 castrated males. The average age at first detection was 10.8 years, and average survival time after detection was 12.3 months; this poor prognosis was probably related to an average delay of 7 months before the first operation and the correlation of the 1-year survival with the tumour volume at first detection. Of the 129 cases examined P.M., 120 showed metastases, most commonly in drainage lymph nodes (83%), lung (84%), pleura (42%), and liver (24%). Subdivision by histological pattern revealed 53 tubular adenocarcinomas, 52 papillary adenocarcinomas, 35 solid carcinomas, 2 mucoid carcinomas, 34 compound carcinomas, and 3 sarcomas. Histological grading revealed that 50% of the low-grade malignancy group survived more than 1 year in contrast to 10% of the high-grade group.