Should this tumor be removed?

Dr. Marie replied:

This is an interesting situation.

My first thought is that it is extremely unlikely for an 8 month old dog to have a cancerous tumor, so this is probably not anything serious.

When we do a fine needle aspirate, we only get to see a few cells in a mass. It's difficult to say with certainty what we are seeing. I know I personally wouldn't feel comfortable diagnosis a tumor as a spindle cell tumor without sending the slide to a pathologist to see.

So, what I am guessing has happened is that the vet saw cells that were long and thin and said they looked like spindle cells. But there are a number of things that can cause cells that look like that.

Do you know if Tobe has had a vaccination in the spot where the lump is? It's possible it is something called a vaccination granuloma. These are rarely anything to worry about but occasionally they can become something called a fibrosarcoma which is definitely really serious.

A mast cell tumor is something that we can see on young dogs. However, a mast cell tumor is usually quite easy to diagnose with a fine needle aspirate and the cells do not look spindle like at all.

Another possibility is something called a histiocytoma. A histiocytoma is a benign lump that young dogs can get and they go away on their own within a few months.

It's hard to say whether or not I would remove it. Depending on the size, I may consider a local anesthetic and a tissue biopsy of the mass. A tissue biopsy tells us much more than a fine needle aspirate and will tell us whether we need to remove it.

The other possibility is to send the slides that they made from the fine needle aspirate to a pathologist to confirm that it is nothing serious.

I hope that helps!

Dr. Marie.


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Dr. Marie replied:

I think if you approach your vet and tell them that you are worried and would like to remove the lump that they would be more than happy to do so.

The other thing you could do is ask them if they could send a slide of a fine needle aspirate to a pathologist to review. A pathologist should be able to tell you whether there is anything to worry about.

Dr. Marie.