Oral tumors in dogs: clinical aspects, exfoliative cytology and histopathology

Abstract

In order to establish the diagnosis and prognosis of tumors of the oral cavity, a comparative study was carried out in 130 dogs considering age, sex, breed, clinical aspects, exfoliative cytology as well as histopathology. Exfoliative cytology revealed: 100% negative for benign non-odontogenic tumors, 97.91% negative benign odontogenic tumors and 77.92% positive for malignant tumors. Histopathology showed: 59.23% malignant tumors (33.08% malignant melanoma, 9.23% squamous cell carcinoma, 5.38% osteosarcoma, 2.31% fibrosarcoma, 2.31% angiosarcoma, 1.54% malignant mesenchymal tumors, 1.54% malignant fibrohistiocytoma, 1.54% lymphoma, 0.77% leyomyosarcoma, 0.77%% epithelioid sarcoma and 0.77% angiofibrosarcoma); 36.92% benign odontogenic tumors (25.38% peripheral odontogenic fibroma, 10.0% ossifyng fibroma and 1.54% odontoma) in addition to 3.85% benign non-odontogenic tumors (1.54% fibroma, 0.77% plasmocytoma, 0.77% pilomatrixoma and 0.77% giant tumor cells). These results permit us to conclude that exfoliative cytology was an efficient, safe, quick and noninvasive method and could be used for early evaluation of oral cancer.