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. 2024 Aug 23;11(9):389.
doi: 10.3390/vetsci11090389.

Cytological Features of Inflammatory Mammary Carcinoma in Dogs

Adina-Mihaela Pîrvu  1 , Mario Caniatti  2 , Marta Pieri  3 , Paola Roccabianca  2 , Manuella Militaru  1
Affiliations

Cytological Features of Inflammatory Mammary Carcinoma in Dogs

Adina-Mihaela Pîrvu et al. Vet Sci. .

Abstract

Background: Inflammatory mammary carcinoma (IMC) is the most aggressive and malignant type of mammary carcinoma. As in humans, canine IMC resembles mastitis clinically. However, IMC is highly aggressive with high incidence of metastases and common recurrence after surgery, leading to guarded prognosis and low survival rate. Given the complex morphology of canine mammary tumours, cytological examination is not performed routinely, and IMC diagnosis relies on the association of clinical features and histopathology. The purpose of this study is to describe the characteristics of canine IMC cytology, in an attempt to find possible cytological features that allow differentiation of IMC from other mammary tumour types.

Methods: We analysed preoperative cytological samples from 25 dogs with IMC, later confirmed by corroborating clinical and histopathological examinations.

Results: Distinct cytological features of canine IMC included scarce cellular cohesiveness, ballooning aspect of neoplastic cells, frequent multinucleation, irregularly dispersed and ropy chromatin pattern, and squamous metaplasia in some individualised cells or those in small groups.

Conclusions: Our results indicate that cytological examination can contribute to the diagnosis of IMC and might help differentiate it from other mammary carcinomas, even when clinical data is not available, which is common in cytological routine.

Keywords: cytology; dog; inflammatory mammary carcinoma; malignancy; mammary tumour.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cytological features of fine-needle aspiration samples from inflammatory mammary carcinoma. (A) Highly cellular smear, with epithelial neoplastic cells with marked anisocytosis and anisokaryosis; intracytoplasmic secretory material (arrow) is indicative of secretory origin of malignant tumour. May–Grünwald Giemsa, ×100. (B) Group of neoplastic cells with anisokaryosis, multiple evident nucleoli, and a high N/C ratio. May–Grünwald Giemsa, ×400. (C) Cells display marked anisonucleolosis, macronucleoli, and ropy chromatin (arrows). May–Grünwald Giemsa, ×400. (D) Neoplastic cells with marked atypia and ballooning aspect, associated with the presence of numerous neutrophils. May–Grünwald Giemsa, ×400.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Cytology of inflammatory mammary carcinoma. (A) Individualised neoplastic cell with squamous metaplasia (arrow) and numerous viable and degenerated background neutrophils. May–Grünwald Giemsa, ×400. (B) Individualised neoplastic cells indicative of loss of cohesiveness, with marked anisokaryosis; giant multinucleated neoplastic cell with intracytoplasmic eosinophilic material and irregular chromatin (arrow). May–Grünwald Giemsa, ×400. (C) Low cellular cohesiveness, marked cellular atypia, including a multinucleated neoplastic giant cell (arrow) and one abnormal mitotic figure (arrowhead). May–Grünwald Giemsa, ×400. (D) Epithelial malignant tumour cells with atypias and abnormal mitotic figures (arrows). May–Grünwald Giemsa, ×400.
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