Clinicopathological Features and Treatment Results of 24 Cats with Mast Cell Tumors

Abstract

We investigated the clinical features and treatment results of 24 cats with mast cell tumors (MCTs), including cutaneous (c-MCT, n=17), splenic (s-MCT, n=2), and simultaneous cutaneous and splenic types (cs-MCT, n=5). Cutaneous lesions were treated by surgical excision or glucocorticoid therapy, and six of seven splenic lesions were treated by splenectomy. Of the 22 cats with c- or cs-MCT, six cats (four with c-MCT, and two with cs-MCT) had one to three distant recurrences (at a skin site distant from the original site) after initial treatment. Of the 31 c-MCTs in these 22 cats, eight were treated with glucocorticoid therapy, which led to complete remission of seven c-MCTs (88%); the other 23 c-MCTs were surgically excised, with only one (4%) recurrence at the surgical site. Although eight of 24 cats (33%) developed recurrent lesions, tumor-related death only occurred in one cat with cs-MCT (4%) during the follow-up period (range 30 to 2,364 days, median 537 days). These results suggest that both surgery and glucocorticoid therapy were effective in local control of c-MCTs, and that long-term survival can be expected, even in cats with s-MCTs who have undergone splenectomy.