Incidence and types of canine tumours in Croatia

Neoplastic diseases are among the leading health concerns in medicine. As such, epidemiological studies considering canine tumours are benefi cial in understanding the patterns of tumour occurrence. The aim of this study was to analyze data on the occurrence of canine tumours in Croatia. From 1 January 2006 to 31 December 2009, a total of 1568 tumours were diagnosed after routine biopsy submission or necropsy. The WHO classifi cation was used for designating tumour type. Most tumours (59.1%) were malignant, 35.4% were benign, while the remainder (5.29%) were treated as not specifi ed. Tumours originated from the skin and subcutis (45.73%), mammary gland (21.75%) and genital system (7.97%). The most common specifi c tumour types diagnosed were mammary tubulopapillary carcinoma (7.14%), mast cell tumour (4.91%) and fi brosarcoma (4.91%). Differences in tumour occurrence in dog populations from inland and coastal areas were negligible in all but mammary tumours (20.54% in inland ; 28.63% in coastal areas) and mammary tubulopapillary carcinoma (6.37% in inland ; 11.54% in coastal areas). Using data from the Croatian national registry of vaccinated dogs, the crude incidence of tumours was calculated only for the Zagreb area. Expressed as the number of tumours per 100, 000 dogs per year, the incidence was 1504 for all tumours, 532 for benign and 790 for malignant tumours. The overall frequencies of dominant tumour types and the crude incidence of canine tumours in the Zagreb area are comparable to other investigations.