Nuclear Morphometry in Relation to Metastases in Canine Spontaneous Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinomas

In a retrospective study on cytological specimens from 17 dogs with histologically confirmed cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, the morphometric variables were studied and compared to metastases in regional lymph nodes. The morphometric parameters evaluated in this study were mean nuclear area (MNA, μm), mean nuclear perimeter (MNP, μm), mean nuclear diameter (D mean, μm), minimum nuclear diameter (D min, μm) and maximum nuclear diameter (D max, μm). Associations between MNA, MNP, D mean, D min and D max in non metastatic and metastatic tumours were assessed using the ANOVA/LSD test (Statistica 6.0, StatSoft, USA) at a level of significance P < 0.05. The correlation between nuclear morphometric parameters and metastases to the regional lymph nodes was evaluated using Pearson’s correlation test (p < 0.05). The mean values of these parameters were significantly greater in dogs with lymph node metastases compared to parameters of tumour cells from dogs which were lymph node-negative. Significant differences in MNA, MNP and D mean were seen between metastasizing and non-metastasizing neoplastic formations. The results from our investigation showed that nuclear morphometry is an objective and reproducible procedure that could be used for evaluating the metastatic potential of canine cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas.