Mast cell tumours (MCT) and soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are some of the most common tumours encountered in small animal practice. Although surgical removal is often the most appropriate initial treatment, questions like whether or not to perform staging tests prior to surgery, identification of cases where surgery may not be recommended, treatment options for non-surgical cases, interpretation of prognostic factors and the best approach for follow up can be more challenging. In this webinar we will discuss initial diagnosis of canine MCT and STS, when and which staging tests are appropriate for different cases, interpretation of histopathology reports and grading schemes, and non-surgical treatment options. We will discuss in more depth the use of receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors such as Palladia in canine MCT.

Tumors are quite frequent in companion animals, with malignant forms representing 56% of all the tumors in dogs and 80% in cats. Predicting the survival time and treatment response for malignant tumors is necessary to evaluate the best care options for the animal. Histological tumor grading helps veterinarians to define the prognosis, but each tumor has its own grading system with different prognosis, in terms of survival rate, metastatic rate, recurrence incidence. It could be not so easy to get your bearings in the pathologic words of gradings. The goal of this seminar is to be able to correlate the validated prognosis to each tumor grading we will see. We will rapidly review what tumor grading is and how it is evaluated. Then we will spend some time to review some of the most important tumor gradings (mammary tumors, mast cell tumors, melanomas, soft tissue sarcomas) and the correlated and validated prognostic factors. At the end of the seminar you will be able to clearly understand your pathologist’s report based on the grading system, and to use it to give an appropriate prognosis to the owners.

Vets in general practice often contact me looking for practical advice managing canine and feline lymphoma patients in house. It’s a disease that is seen often and, while there are guiding principles, every patient presents slightly differently and responds to treatment individually. In this lecture we’ll aim to cover the common diagnostic and treatment challenges and provide a good base for improving your confidence in approaching these patients. We’ll discuss standard diagnostic techniques and options for when the diagnosis is difficult to achieve. As we move to discussing clinical staging and treatment we’ll cover the options for several different anatomical locations and histopathological subtypes. We’ll review practical tips for chemotherapy administration including a review of the common chemotherapy agents used in treating canine and feline lymphoma and what to do when things don’t go according to plan. We’ll cover what’s new and what’s evolving in the management of canine lymphoma with a focus on what’s practical and relevant for you.