Preliminary Assessment of Tumor-Associated Tissue Eosinophilia (TATE) in Canine Mast Cell Tumors: Prevalence and Prognostic Relevance and Its Association with Neoangiogenesis
by
, , , ,
Valentina Galietta
1,†
,
Francesca Parisi
2,*,†,
Cristiano Cocumelli
1,
Alessio Pierini
2
,
Alessandro Poli
2,
Paola Scaramozzino
1
,
Valentina Spallucci
1,3 and
Francesca Millanta
2 1
Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e Della Toscana “M. Aleandri”, Via Appia Nuova 1411, 00178 Roma, Italy
2
Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Pisa, Viale delle Piagge n. 2, 56124 Pisa, Italy
3
Agenzia Nazionale per i Servizi Sanitari Regionali, Via Piemonte 60, 00187 Roma, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Animals 2023, 13(2), 283; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13020283
Submission received: 1 December 2022
/
Revised: 5 January 2023
/
Accepted: 9 January 2023
/
Published: 13 January 2023
(This article belongs to the Section Companion Animals)
Simple Summary
Mast cell tumor (MCT) is the most common malignant skin tumor in dogs. In order to gain more information on the prognostic markers of MCT, the role of the eosinophil granulocytes infiltrates was investigated and assessed by the evaluation of tumor-associated tissue eosinophilia (TATE) in 87 canine cutaneous MCTs. In human medicine, high TATE are often described in highly angiogenic tumors: we therefore assessed the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in neoplastic mast cells. TATE and VEGF expression were compared between themselves, with other variables expressing the biological behavior of the tumor, and with the recurrence. High grades of TATE resulted to be associated with less differentiated tumors, with higher recurrence rates, and with aberrant expression of KIT. This is the first evaluation of the association between TATE and the biologic behavior of MCTs. This study suggests that TATE investigation could be an important source of information for this tumor and for other neoplasms.
Abstract
Mast cell tumor (MCT) is the most common malignant skin tumor in dogs. In order to gain more information on the prognostic markers in MCT, the role of the eosinophil granulocytes infiltrates was investigated and assessed by the evaluation of tumor-associated tissue eosinophilia (TATE) in 87 canine cutaneous MCTs. In human medicine, high TATE are often described in highly angiogenic tumors: we therefore assessed the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in neoplastic mast cells. TATE and VEGF expression were compared between themselves, with histological grading, immunohistochemical expression of KIT and Ki-67, and with the recurrence. We found a statistically significant correlation between TATE and Patnaik grading (p = 0.041), Kiupel grading (p = 0.022), immunohistochemical KIT expression (p = 0.015), and tumor recurrence (p = 0.000). No associations were observed with Ki-67 and VEGF expression. This is the first evaluation of TATE and its prognostic value in canine MCTs in veterinary oncology. This study suggest that this investigation could be an important source of information for this tumor and for other neoplasms.
