A Retrospective Study of Equine Neoplasms Diagnosed in the Pathology Service of Fmvz Usp

Introduction: Neoplasms are very common in the routine practice of equine practitioners and few studies were done about this subject in the State of São Paulo- Brazil. A retrospective study was conducted based on diagnoses from histopathologic exams at the Animal Pathology Service, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Husbandry of the University of São Paulo – Brazil. Objectives: The aim of this investigation is to contribute to cancer epidemiology research through a retrospective study of equine neoplasms diagnosed at the Animal Pathology Service of the FMVZ- USP. Methods: Histopathological database was analyzed from 1999 to 2006 at the Animal Pathology Service of the FMVZ-USP. Results: 1) the total number of horses recorded during the period 1999 to 2006 was 266; 2) 73 neoplasms were diagnosed representing 27,4% of the cases researched; 3) among horses with cancer, 50 (68,5%) were males and 21 (28, 7%) females. On two (2,7%) of them gender was not available; 4) 39 (53.4%) neoplasms were cutaneous and 34 (46.6%) were visceral. 5) 29 (39,7%) were from mesenchimal origin, 44 (60,3%) were epithelial. From the latter, 40 (90.9%) were non-glandular and 4 (9.1%) glandular; 6) the most frequent neoplasm from mesenchimal origin was sarcoïd with 7 cases (24,1%); and from epithelial non-glandular origin, squamous cell carcinoma predominated with 33 cases (82,5%), and from glandular epithelial origin sweat gland adenocarcinoma was found in two cases (50%). Discussion and Conclusions: According to our results, large animal veterinarians must be aware of neoplasms, since approximately one fourth of all equine diseases are neoplasms, the majority cutaneous which are easily detectable. [...]