Estudio histológico e inmunohistoquístico diferencial de inmunofenotipo, angiogénesis y patrón de metástasis en el cáncer inflamatorio mamario canino con respecto a otros tumores mamarios

Abstract

Inflammatory mammary carcinoma (IC) is considered the most aggressive type of mammary tumor and the one with the worst prognosis for survival in both dogs and humans. This type of tumor is considered a special type of mammary cancer and it is characterized by having a fulminant clinical course. Most of its characteristics are still unknown but new research has started providing us with answers. The research of IC in humans is very complicated since a combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy are recommended before surgical excision of the tumor, thus making it very difficult to obtain good tissue samples for analysis of untreated tumor cells. On the other hand, canine cases tend to show up at veterinary clinics in a more advanced state of disease, where chemotherapy is not an option anymore, thus making elective euthanasia the most recommended route of action. This makes it easier to obtain samples from untreated tumor and other affected organs. It has been shown that the canine species is a good model for researching IC in women since there are very similar epidemiologic, clinical and histological features between the two species. We have decided to study various unknown aspects of this very aggressive type of tumor in this Doctoral Thesis. The objectives for this research project were to characterize the immunophenotype and the angiogenic features of mammary IC with respect to malignant mammary tumors with high histological malignancy (MMT non-IC) and determine the metastatic pattern of IC tumors in comparison to (MMT non-IC).