Retrospective study of canine cutaneous tumors in Korea

Over the 42 month period from January 2003 to June 2006, a total of 2,952 canine biopsy specimens were received from the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital of Seoul National University and from veterinary practitioners across the nation. Out of these, 748 (25.34%) cases were diagnosed as canine cutaneous tumors in the Department of Veterinary Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, Korea. Thirty-eight different types of cutaneous tumors were identified and categorized into epithelial and melanocytic tumors (56.95%), mesenchymal tumors (38.90%), and hematopoietic tumors (4.14%) located in the skin. Among these, 69.25% were benign and 30.74% were malignant. The top ten most frequently diagnosed cutaneous tumors were epidermal and follicular cysts (12.70%), lipoma (11.36%), mast cell tumors (8.82%), cutaneous histiocytoma (7.49%), basal cell tumors (6.82%), sebaceous gland adenoma (6.68%), sebaceous gland hyperplasia (5.08%), hepatoid gland adenoma (3.61%), apocrine adenocarcinoma (3.07%), and fibroma (2.81%), in order of prevalence. They comprised 68.45% of all cutaneous tumors. These top ten cutaneous tumors were distributed on the trunk (30.08%), head and neck (20.9%), extremities (19.14%), anal and perianal area (8.59%), and tail (3.91%). The age of the dogs with the ten most frequent tumors had a mean age of 8.3 years, with a range of 2 months to 19 years. When all types of tumors were considered together in the entire population, there was no difference in incidence according to sex.This study was supported by the Brain Korea 21 Program for Veterinary Science