Data from eleven United States and Canadian colleges of veterinary medicine on pancreatic carcinoma in domestic animals.

To determine characteristics of dogs with pancreatic carcinoma and the relative frequency with which this carcinoma occurs in other common domestic animal spe cies, a case series compiled from medical records of animal patients was compared with a veterinary clinic-hospital reference population. Pancreatic carcinoma in dogs was slightly more frequent in females, strongly associated with increasing age, and was found excessively only in the Airedale terrier breed. Estimated rates per 100,000 patient years at risk were: cattle, 3.9; horses, 1.6; dogs, 17.8; and cats, 12.6. Based on anatomical similarities, a bile-reflux hypothesis recently proposed for humans could apply to pancreatic carcinoma in several domestic animal species, but not in all. Two dogs with pancreatic carcinoma and thyroid adenoma may have been analogous to an endocrinopathy reported in an autopsy series of human patients with pancreatic carcinoma.