Feline Malignant Mammary Tumors. I. Morphology and Biology: Some Comparisons With Human and Canine Mammary Carcinomas2

Abstract
The morphology and biology of 179 malignant mammary tumors from 170 cats were described. The site of tumors was nearly equally distributed among the 4 pairs of glands. The recorded sex distribution was 114 intact Females, 40 ovariectomized females (average age at spaying, 5.8 years), and 2 castrated males. The average age at first detection was 10.8 years, and average survival time aFter detection was 12.3 months; this poor prognosis was probably related to an average delay of 7 months beFore the first operation and the correlation of the 1-year survival with the tumor volume at first detection. OF the 129 necropsies,120 showed metastases most commonly in drainage lymph nodes (82.8%), lungs (83.6%), pleurae (42.2%), and livers (23.6%). Subdivision by histologic pattern showed 53 tubular adenocarcinomas, 52 papillary adenocarcinomas, 35 solid carcinomas, 2 mucoid carcinomas, 34 compound carcinomas, and 3 sarcomas. Histologic grading revealed that 50% of the low-grade malignancy group survived more than 1 year in contrast to 10% of the high grade group.