Massive hepatocellular carcinoma in dogs: 48 cases (1992-2002)

Objective-To determine clinical signs, diagnostic findings, outcome, and prognostic factors in dogs treated surgically for massive hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and compare survival times of surgically and conservatively treated dogs. Design-Retrospective study. Animals-48 dogs. Procedure-Medical records were examined for clinical signs, diagnostic and surgical findings, and postoperative outcome. Dogs were allocated into surgery and nonsurgery groups depending on whether curative-intent liver lobectomy was performed. Data from the surgical and nonsurgical groups were analyzed to identify prognostic factors and determine and compare rates of tumor control and survival time. Results-42 dogs were treated surgically, and 6 were managed conservatively. In the surgery group, intraoperative mortality rate was 4.8% with no local recurrence, metastatic rate was 4.8%, and median survival time was >1,460 days (range, 1 to 1,460 days). High alanine anninotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase activities were associated with poor prognosis. Median survival time for the nonsurgery group was 270 days (range, 0 to 415 days), which was significantly less than that of surgically treated dogs. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance-Liver lobectomy is recommended for dogs with massive HCC because tumor-related mortality rate was 15.4 times higher in dogs in the nonsurgery group, compared with the surgery group. Tumor control was excellent after surgical resection with no local recurrence and a low metastatic rate. Prognostic factors were identified, but their clinical relevance was uncertain because only 9.5% of dogs in the surgery group died as a result of their disease.