In honor of National Pet Cancer Awareness Month, Mount Carmel Animal Hospital discusses soft tissue sarcomas in pets.
Have you noticed any tumors on your pet’s back, side, legs, or chest? They might be soft tissue sarcomas. These tumors occur due to the uncontrolled production of specific cell types. In honor of National Pet Cancer Awareness Month, Mount Carmel Animal Hospital discusses soft tissue sarcomas in pets.
What are Soft Tissue Sarcomas
Soft tissue sarcomas are cancers that can impact dogs and cats. They are tumors that grow in the body’s connective, nervous, or muscle tissues. Locally, they invade the nearby tissues, skin, and muscles. These tumors may also spread to other body parts in your pet, and the histological grade can determine that risk. Although soft tissue tumors arise from different cell types, they all behave similarly, and their treatment is usually the same.
Signs and Symptoms of Soft Tissue Sarcomas
The clinical signs depend on the tumor’s location in your pet’s body and the affected tissues. Sometimes, dogs or cats have an obvious mass that grows in size. Signs associated with soft tissue sarcomas in pets include the following:
- Pets with tumors on muscle tissue might display signs of pain in the affected area and have a distinct firm and developing mass (tumor).
- Tumors located on a cat’s or dog’s limbs might cause changes in their ability to walk and cause noticeable swelling.
- Tumors growing in your pet’s nervous tissue might make them unable to use the affected limb or might demonstrate other neurological signs.
- Dogs or cats with intestinal tumors might demonstrate signs of an intestinal blockage, like diarrhea, vomiting, weight loss, abdominal pain, and lack of appetite.
- Soft tissue sarcomas in pets often trigger halitosis (bad breath), loss of appetite, difficulty eating, or obvious tumors in the mouth.
Diagnosis
In some cases of soft tissue sarcomas in pets, your veterinarian might perform a fine needle aspiration. This process requires using a small needle with a syringe to suction cell samples directly from the tumor and putting them on a microscope slide. If this method does not confirm a diagnosis, a biopsy would be necessary.
A biopsy is beneficial because it indicates how aggressive the tumor is and how its treatment must be approached. Pieces of the tumor are then analyzed under the microscope (histopathology). Moreover, staging may be recommended. This includes urinalysis, blood work, X-rays of the lungs, and possibly an abdominal ultrasound. Further sampling might be performed to determine if any spread is present in your pet’s body.
Treatment
Surgery is the most common treatment for eliminating soft tissue sarcomas in pets. Because these tumors usually produce “tentacles” of abnormal cells, wide margins of the tissue must be obtained to control the tumor best. Recurrence of the cancer is much more likely if microscopic cells are left behind after surgery. If cells are left behind, a second surgery, a combo of radiation therapy and surgery, or chemotherapy might be pursued.
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