EPIDEMIOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF THE DOGS WITH ORAL TUMORS ATTENDED IN THE VETERINARY HOSPITAL OF FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF RIO GRANDE DO SUL

Abstract

Oral tumors reach about 6% of all the neoplasm in dogs. The objective of this research was to form an epidemiological study on dogs with oral tumors that have been treated at the Veterinary Hospital of Federal University of rio Grande do Sul from July 2003 to July 2007. The research was conducted within the archives of the histopathology laboratory, using the animals’ clinical files, in which they had been categorized by breed, sex, age and the tumors’ histology.  Among the total 79 dogs analyzed, 39 (49.37%) were male and 40 (50.63%) were female. The age range of the dogs spanned from 1 to 16 years, with the average age being 7.7 years. Regarding the types of dogs which were affected by tumors, the most, 16 (19.76%), were mixed breed, followed by the poodle, with 12 cases (14.82%). Malignant neoplasms were found in 50.63% of the cases, and benign neoplasms in 49.37% of the cases. The most common tumors found was the melanoma and acanthomatous epulis with 19 cases each (23.46%), followed by fibrosarcoma and fibrous epulis with 9 cases each (11.11%), plasmocytoma with 8 cases (9.88%), ameloblastoma with 4 cases (4.94%), squamous cell carcinoma and osteosarcoma with 3 cases each (3.7%). Ultimately, this study indicates that malignant tumors were more prevalent than benign, and that the most common histological types of tumors were melanoma, fibrosarcoma, acanthomatous epulis and fibrous epulis.

KEY WORDS: Cancer, dogs, oral tumors.