A statistical study on the tumours of dogs.

The author presents a statistical investigation of tumours from 164 dogs examined at the Department of Pathology of the College of Veterinary Medicine, Helsinki, Finland. It was found that Boxers and Airedale terriers were predisposed to tumours and especially to cutaneous neoplasms. The dominance of mammary tumours in Dachshunds was statistically highly significant. A statistically highly significant under-representation of Finnish harriers and Finnish spitzes was noted. Sex distribution was female-dominated, obviously owing to high incidence of mammary tumours. It was shown that tumours, especially malignant neoplasms, were primarily found in the high age groups. No difference was observed in the frequency of epithelial and mesenchymal tumours. Malignant tumours were strongly dominant, obviously due to common incidence of carcinoma. The carcinoma/sarcoma ratio was 1.5:1. Analysis of the localization showed that cutaneous tumours (37.0 %) and mammary tumours of females (19.1 %) were most common. Nine dogs showed 18 multiple primary tumours. The high frequency of these tumours in older dogs was obvious. Their mean age was 10 ± 0.9 year.