Carcinoma de células escamosas em cão: eletro quimioterapia associada ou não a cirurgia e correlação com a sobrevida.

Abstract

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is one of the most important malignancies in dogs, due to its incidence and clinical presentation, which can be of single or multiple lesions, locally aggressive, and with metastatic potential. The objective of this thesis was to evaluate response to treatment and anatomopathological and immunohistochemical characteristics related to this neoplasm, followed by disease-free interval and overall survival time evaluation. Dogs referred to the Veterinary Hospital of Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais with a histopathologic diagnosis of SCC were included in the study. 54 dogs were included in this study, with a median age of 9.16 years (1 to 14 years old). 65.4% (34/54) of the animals in this study had white skin and fur coats. There was a significant association between fur coat color and tumors in locations related to sun exposure (p = 0.001). Animals with tumors in sun exposed locations had longer overall survival time than animals with tumors in locations not associated with sun exposure (p = 0.001). Association of surgery with electrochemotherapy (ECT) yielded a survival benefit 32% higher when compared to surgical approach alone (HR = 0.32, p = 0.038, IC = 0.11-0.94). Patients tolerated ECT well and no important local or systemic side effects were noted. ECT with or withour surgery showed an objective response rate of 90.9%. 34.6% (18/52) of animals showed local lymph node and/or distant site metastasis at diagnosis or at some point during follow-up. Considering histopathological grading, 16.2% (6/37) were well differentiated (Broder grade 1), 81.1% (30/37) were moderately differentiated (Broder grades 2 and 3), and 2.7% (1/37) were poorly differentiated (Broder grade 4). Animals with tumors in sun exposed locations had more aggressive histopathological characteristics but had a longer overall survival time. This is probably due to individualized therapeutic planning, with surgery and ECT association. It was not possible to establish a prognostic value for COX-2 score, intratumoral microvessel density nor proliferation index.