As a result of major developments in canine veterinarian medicine and especially testing methods (scanners, echography, etc.), knowledge about animal oncology has made much progress in the last ten years so much so that is now equals oncology knowledge about humans. From an anatomy-pathology standpoint in particular, diagnostic techniques have been refined and laboratories are now able to establish the exact history of a tumor and determine how aggressive it is ("grading"). This enables the veterinarian to better adapt the choice of treatment and above all, to give the owner a prognosis.
The average age for the onset of cancer in dogs is between six and ten years old. More and more females are being affected (almost double the number). The elevated ratio is easily explained by the high incidence of breast cancer in dogs, particularly as these tumors are generally easy to operate on and surgery has become more commonplace.
Several breeds are predisposed, including poodles, German shepherds, boxers, cockers and dachshunds, followed by Brittany spaniels, Yorkshire and fox terriers. Looking at all types of tumors, the percentage of benign tumors is significantly higher in dogs under three years of age and the opposite is true with dogs older than seven.
As for the types of cancer, breast cancer is by far dominant, followed by skin cancer, cancer of the mesenchymal tissue and finally, cancer of the male genitals, mouth and hemolymphocytopoiesis system.
Finally, certain breeds are predisposed to certain types of tumors. This is the case with dolicephalic breeds (predisposed to tumors in the nasal cavity), large breeds (predisposed to tumors of the skeleton), boxers (predisposed to skin tumors, especially mastocytomas) and breeds with pigmented mucous membranes (chow-chows and Scottish terriers), which are predisposed to melanoma tumors of the oral cavity.
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