TREATMENT OF CUTANEOUS

Clinical treatment of mast cell tumors may include surgical excision, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and some combination of these. In dogs, Mast cell tumours should always be treated as potentially malignant neoplasms, because metastasis occur in 30 % of cases (especially regional lymph nodes, spleen, liver and bone marrow). Early surgical excision is indicated in animals with a solitary neoplasm (stages I and III of WHO, Table 1). Wide surgical margins, at least 3 cm between the palpable tumour and the incision, has traditionally been recommended. A recent publication, however, suggest that a 2 cm margin may be enough to prevent recurs of grade I and grade II canine mast cell tumours. (Simpson et al, 2003). Histologic grade (Table 2) is an important factor in predicting recurrence at the surgical site. Those that are undifferentiated tend to have a highe