Occurrence of Testicular Tumours in Dogs

ABSTRACT

In the Department of Physiology and Pathology we examined the testes of 40 dogs. They were examined grossly and for histological examination they were fixed with Bouin's solution, embedded in paraffin, sectioned and stained with haematoxylineosin stains. PAS reaction and imunohistological assays were performed.

The dogs were divided into three groups considering their age: </= 5 years of age, from 6 to 9 and from 10 to 16 years of age. There were 19(47%) mongrels amongst these dogs. From 40 examined dogs the most common pathologies were tumours (42%) and degenerations (29%). The highest level of the tumours was found in the 7, 8 and 10 year old dogs. In 10 cases we found testicular tumours in the 10 years and older dogs, in 7 cases—in the 6–9 year old dogs, and there were no testicular tumours in dogs aged 5 years and younger. The most common occurrence of testicular tumours were seminomas (52%). Seminomas were mostly found in the 10-year and older dogs testes, also in cryptorchidic testes. Leydig-cell and Sertoli-cell tumours were diagnosed in 24% of dogs. In two cases we found Leydig-cell tumours with intratubular seminomas, both within one testis and in one case—different types of Leydig-cell tumour in one dog's testes. We found both types of Sertoli-cell tumours in the cryptorchidic testes and in the one testis they were found together with seminoma. We didn't find any signs of the feminization syndrome in these dogs.