RT Journal Article
T1 Preoperative Clinical Predictors of Histologic Malignancy and Carcinoma Grade in 286 Canine Mammary Nodules from 92 Bitches: A Retrospective Study
A1 Fuertes Recuero, Manuel
A1 García San José, Paula
A1 Valdivia Lara, Edgar Guillermo
A1 Suarez-Redondo, María
A1 Penelo Hidalgo, Silvia
A1 Arenillas Baquero, Mario
A1 Camacho-Alonso, Laura
A1 Peña Fernández, Laura Luisa
A1 Pérez Alenza, María De Los Dolores
A1 Ortiz Díez, Gustavo
AB Canine mammary tumours often present as multiple synchronous nodules, necessitating decisions regarding staging intensity and surgical planning prior to histology. We developed two preoperative nodule-level prediction models using only the medical history and physical examination of client-owned bitches with mammary disease, which were staged using the WHO-modified TNM system with a M0 classification (no distant metastasis) at the time of presentation. This retrospective study analysed 286 surgically excised mammary nodules from 92 dogs managed under a standardised mammary oncology protocol; those with inflammatory mammary carcinoma or distant metastasis were excluded. The outcomes were (i) malignant versus benign/non-neoplastic histology (for all nodules) and (ii) intermediate/high histologic grade (II-III versus I) among carcinomas. Separate multivariable Firth penalised logistic regression models accounted for within-dog clustering with dog-level bootstrap internal validation. Multiple imputation was used in a sensitivity analysis for missingness in the detection-to-surgery interval. Malignancy was confirmed in 87/286 (30.4%) of the nodules (86 carcinomas), including 35/87 (40.2%) that measured less than 1 cm. Among complete cases (153 nodules), malignancy was associated with age at neutering, maximum tumour diameter, owner-reported rapid growth and a detection-to-surgery interval of more than 3.5 months (an exploratory ROC-derived threshold) with good discrimination (area under the curve (AUC) 0.805; optimism-corrected 0.799) and acceptable calibration. Among carcinomas (83 specimen), previous mammary tumours, bloody nipple discharge and fewer synchronous nodules were associated with intermediate/high malignancy grade (AUC 0.859). Sensitivity analyses yielded directionally consistent estimates. Routinely available clinical information may provide interpretable preoperative risk stratification to support staging and surgical planning, pending external validation
PB MDPI
YR 2026
FD 2026
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/133202
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/133202
LA eng
NO Fuertes-Recuero, M., García San José, P., Valdivia, G., Suarez-Redondo, M., Penelo, S., Arenillas, M., Camacho-Alonso, L., Peña, L., Pérez-Alenza, D., & Ortiz-Díez, G. (2026). Preoperative Clinical Predictors of Histologic Malignancy and Carcinoma Grade in 286 Canine Mammary Nodules from 92 Bitches: A Retrospective Study. Animals : an open access journal from MDPI, 16(3), 421. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani16030421
NO Author ContributionsConceptualization, M.F.-R., P.G.S.J., G.V., M.S.-R., S.P., M.A., L.C.-A., L.P., D.P.-A. and G.O.-D.; methodology, M.F.-R., P.G.S.J., G.V., M.S.-R., S.P., M.A., L.C.-A., L.P., D.P.-A. and G.O.-D.; validation, M.F.-R., P.G.S.J., G.V., M.S.-R., S.P., M.A., L.C.-A., L.P., D.P.-A. and G.O.-D.; investigation, M.F.-R., P.G.S.J., G.V., M.S.-R., S.P., M.A., L.C.-A., L.P., D.P.-A. and G.O.-D.; resources, L.P., D.P.-A. and G.O.-D.; writing—original draft preparation, M.F.-R., P.G.S.J., G.V., M.S.-R., S.P., M.A. and L.C.-A.; writing—review and editing, L.P., D.P.-A. and G.O.-D.; visualization, M.F.-R., P.G.S.J., G.V., M.S.-R., S.P., M.A., L.C.-A., L.P., D.P.-A. and G.O.-D.; supervision, L.P., D.P.-A. and G.O.-D. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript
DS Docta Complutense
RD 24 mar 2026