Most common sarcomas diagnosed in dogs and cats

Purpose of research: to investigate the frequency of prevalence of sarcomas in dogs and cats of various breeds, age and sex. Tasks of the study: to determine the proportion of cases of neoplastic diseases, to determine the proportion of sarcomas among all tumours of dogs and cats, to determine the types of sarcomas found in dogs and cats, to evaluate the prevalence of sarcomas in dogs and cats of all ages and both sexes, to identify the impact of the breed of dogs and cats on the prevalence of sarcomas, to determine the number of mast cells in different types of sarcomas. Method of research: data were collected from January 2012 to April 2015 in L. Kriaučeliūnas Small Animal Clinic of the Veterinary Academy of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. Results of histopathological tests of selected animals were analysed, sarcoma types were identified, histological preparations were prepared and mass cell count in preparations was performed in the Pathology Centre of the Department of Communicable Diseases of the Veterinary Academy of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. Results and conclusions: we found that tumour diseases account for 3 % all clinical cases among dogs and 2 % among cats; that sarcomas account for 4 % of all cancers in dogs and 6 % in cats. In our study dogs were diagnosed with histiocytic sarcomas (30 %), osteosarcomas (27 %), fibrosarcomas (23 %) hemangiosarcomas (12 %) lymphosarcomas (4 %) and leiomyosarcomas (4 %). Cats – with fibrosarcomas (60 %) and osteosarcomas (40 %). We found that the average age of dogs with sarcomas was 6.8 years, median – 7 years. The average age of sick cats was 7.9 years, median – 10 years. In the dog group sarcomas were equally often prevalent in both males (50 %) and females (50 %). In the cat group females (80 %) were affected by disease more often than males (20 %). The incidence of sarcomas was more common in the breeds of German shepherd dogs (19.25 %) and English Cocker Spaniels (15.40 %). Among cats, sarcomas were more frequently diagnosed for crossbreeds (40.00 %). We determined the count of mast cells in different types of sarcomas and found that the count of cells differs significantly not only in different types, but also in different samples of the same types