Evaluation of hemostasis in female dogs with mammary carcinoma and the influence of clinical stage and histopathological grade

ABSTRACT

Background: Mammary tumors are frequent in female dogs, and are biologically similar in female dogs and humans.Hemostatic disorders are common in humans with cancer, and the mechanisms that conduct coagulation activation involvetissue and cancer procoagulant factors and inflammatory cytokines. Despite the importance of coagulopathy diagnosis thatevaluate hemostasis, veterinarians rarely request such tests in routine clinical oncology. This study aimed to investigate thepossible hemostatic abnormalities in female dogs with mammary carcinomas and assess any associations with prognosticfactors for mammary cancer in female dogs.Materials, Methods & Results: A total of 62 female dogs were selected for inclusion in this study regardless of age or breed.The control group consisted of 30 healthy dogs, and the carcinoma group consisted of 32 dogs with a histopathologicaldiagnosis of mammary carcinoma that was free of distant metastases and comorbidities that could interfere with the hemostatic system integrity. The dogs with mammary carcinoma were divided into subgroups according to their histologicaltype, histopathological grading, tumor size, and clinical stage of the disease (TNM) to evaluate the relationships betweenthe subgroups and hemostatic parameters (blood platelet counts, prothrombin time [PT], activated partial thromboplastintime [aPTT], and plasma fibrinogen concentration). The hemostatic parameters were significantly higher in the carcinomagroup than in the control group (P ≤ 0.05). These findings indicate that there is a strong association between the occurrenceof mammary carcinoma and abnormal hemostatic parameters...