A retrospective study of canine oral extramedullary plasmacytoma over a 15-year period (July 2004–July 2019): Treatment, histologic parameters and clinical outcomes

Abstract

A total of 45 cases of canine oral extramedullary plasmacytomas (EMPs) presented to a tertiary referral institution over a 15-year period were examined. Histologic sections of 33 of these cases were examined for histopathologic prognostic indicators. Patients underwent variable treatment including surgical intervention, chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy. Long term survival was observed in the majority of dogs with a median survival time of 973 days (2–4315 days). However, almost 1/3 of dogs had progression of plasma cell disease, including two cases with myeloma-like progression. Histologic characterization of these tumours did not reveal criteria to predict tumour malignancy. However, cases without tumour progression did not exceed 28 mitotic figures in ten 400× fields (2.37 mm2). All cases with tumour related death showed at least moderate nuclear atypia. Oral EMPs may represent a local manifestation of systemic plasma cell disease or singular focal neoplasia.