title: Nuclear morphometry in relation to lymph node status in canine mammary carcinomas.
abstract: The assessment of nuclear area and nuclear shape by morphometric analysis, has been investigated in 40 canine mammary carcinomas in relation to their metastatic behaviour to regional lymph-nodes. The tumours were reviewed by two experienced pathologists blinded regarding their lymph-node status, and were classified according to the histogenetically based criteria suggested by Benjamin et al. (1999). Twenty of these tumours showed lymph-node metastases (node-positive), and the other twenty were node-negative. Node-positive tumours included 6 simple adenocarcinomas, 10 ductular carcinomas, 2 anaplastic carcinomas and 2 carcinomas in mixed tumours; node-negative tumours included 18 adenocarcinomas %96, 10 simple adenocarcinomas, 8 complex adenocarcinomas %96, and 2 carcinomas in mixed tumours. Node-positive tumours showed MNA and mean SDA values significantly higher (p<0.001) than node-negative carcinomas. Data of this study, seems to confirm the importance of an histogenetically based classification in canine mammary tumours, also suggesting that morphometry may increase our prognostic performances allowing a reproducible method for detecting individual tumours with higher metastatic potential.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Messina, Italy. gionatadevico@tiscali.it
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: De Vico
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Maiolino
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cataldi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mazzullo
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Restucci
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D004285:Dogs; D005260:Female; D006651:Histocytochemistry; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology*; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D015674:Mammary Neoplasms, Animal / Q000473:pathology*