mast cell cancer

[Brookesmami]

Ok, anyone else ever deal with this??? Brooke was diagnosed with stage 1 or 2 today and has to have a lump (which we were told was a fatty tumor and just to watch it) the size of a walnut removed from her butt. the vet wants to remove the skin around it so its going to be a softball sized area. Thank goodness she is skinny and has lots of extra skin, Vet says he doesnt think he will have a problem sewing her up. My poor baby..

Please post your experiences. aftercare and everything


(on a side note, her chart is marked no ACE and no Remadyl.)

 

[Cami]

So sorry to hear about Brook's cancer diagnosis.
First of all (and no disrespect to your vet) but.....you can't tell by looking at OR doing a needle aspiration what specific grade this tumor is without actually removing it and sending it off to pathology.
In reality you can't even be 100% certain that it is indeed a MCT without a pathologist taking a look at it. A good deal of vets have seen enough however to get a pretty good indication when they do a needle biopsy but still, not always proof positive of what you are dealing with.
My girl has had lumps aspirated and them deemed a mast cell tumor. Had it removed and it wasn't. Also had an aspiration of another lump and it was deemed a dermal cyst only to have it removed and it was a pretty advanced MCT.

There are MULTIPLE previous posts here on BW about mast cell tumors. As well as various treatment options. Surgery is not the only viable treatment. If you do a search of my user name "cami" or "Vetalog" as well as mast cell tumors, etc....you will find days worth of posts to scour.

My girl is the mast cell queen! 12 so far starting when she was 2 years old (she is now over 6). Your walnut sized description would make me opt to have the Vetalog injections done in an attempt to kill the tumor without surgery (due to size and location) or at minimum to shrink the tumor from its current size down to something more manageable. Also, an oncologist is a MUST when dealing with cancer.

If you have any specific questions don't hesitate to ask.

 

[Brookesmami]

thank you very much. I did do a search and was reading through

I will mention the shot to him, Im not real fond of the idea of removing a soft ball sized piece of skin from my baby girl

he said that he saw mast cells (he did a stain on a slide) and that it also contained a high number of something else, normally a sign of cancer, I dont recall what it was....

 

[Cami]

Mast cells are found normally in the blood stream. They tend to be beneficial in many ways. They help fight off allergies, are needed for wound healing and help to fight off pathogens.
They use a stain to help color them so that they can be seen (for lack of a better description).
If he suspects cancer he probably also saw granules within the sample as well.
Speculating about the grade of the tumor may have been due to the amount of cells he was able to view. One would think that a lower evidence of the cells would point towards a lower graded tumor but that is not always the case.
A better alternative to know how aggressive this tumor is can be by its rate of growth after initial presentation. If it was not there one day and then showed up and was pretty big to begin with and continued to get bigger it is probably at least a grade 2.
At any rate with this large of a tumor on a Boxer is it very wise to see the advice of an oncologist. At the very least they can point you in the right direction of a surgical vet. Mast cell tumor removals not only have to get what you can see but into deeper and outer reaching tissue since they do tend to grow out and down.
I speak from experience. My girl has pretty much the same thing you are describing. A tumor was spotted one day that didn't resemble any of her previous MCT's. A needle aspiration was done and no mast cells were seen. It continued to sit on her back (near her nub) for 9 months. It was about the size of a walnut. Call it woman's intuition of whatever but I just KNEW that it wasn't good and requested a 2nd aspiration. It was at this time that mast cells were seen and I scheduled surgery for its removal. It came back as a grade 2/advanced with a higher than I would have liked, mitotic index. A 2nd surgery was preformed achieving clean margins.

The 2nd surgery was awful (the first was bad enough). Quite painful for Cami and recovery and healing took longer than expected. She was left with about a 6 inch scar down her back. I don't care about the scar BUT I only wish I would have known about alternative options like the injections or even a surgical expert prior.

Traditional vets are wonderful at what they do. But they are not board certified in oncology or surgeries.

In addition if you are dealing with a MCT you will need to have an abdominal ultrasound done to see if there has been any metastases (internal spreading). When a MCT spreads it is generally seen in the liver, spleen or lymph nodes in that vicinity. An oncologist will have this equipment on hand.