Histologic features and clinical outcomes of melanomas of lip, haired skin, and nail bed locations of dogs

Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1619, USA. patricia.schultheiss@colostate.edu

Outcomes, signalments, and the relationship of histologic features with the outcome of melanomas located in lip, nail bed, and haired skin of dogs were reviewed. These melanomas were diagnosed as benign or malignant based on histologic features. Melanomas of the lip arose from mucous membrane in most cases. 32 dogs with lip melanomas that had histologic features of malignancy, 22 died because of the tumor within 1 year and 10 were tumor free for at least 1 year following removal. Of 10 dogs with melanomas with benign histologic features on the mucous membrane of the lip, 9 were tumor free for at least 1 year. Of 4 dogs with benign appearing tumors of the haired skin of the lip, 3 were tumor free for at least 1 year. Melanomas with histologic features of malignancy occurred in many locations of haired skin, and 11 of 24 dogs were tumor free for at least 1 year. All nail bed melanomas had histologic features of malignancy and all invaded the third phalanx, but 6 of 14 dogs were tumor free for at least 1 year after amputation of the digit. Among these dogs, the 1-year survival rates for tumors classified as malignant by histologic features were 69% for lip, 46% for haired skin, and 43% for nail bed. However, the clinical outcome of an individual malignant tumor could not be predicted accurately by any specific histologic features.

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