Evaluation of the importance of vascular endothelial growth factor, glucose transporter 1, and Ki-67 as prognostic factors of progression of actinic keratosis to squamous cell carcinoma in dogs

• Grant number: 12/19185-8
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: December 01, 2012
• End date: November 30, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Animal Clinics and Surgery
• Principal Investigator: Mirela Tinucci Costa
• Grantee: Mirela Tinucci Costa
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Debora Aparecida Pires de Campos Zuccari

Abstract

Actinic keratosis (AK) and skin squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) lesions are reported in humans and commonly documented in dogs aged from eight to ten years old. They appear on chronically sun-exposed, less pigmented and glabrous areas. Early lesions of AK manifest clinical improvement with the use of photo-protective agents and avoiding sun exposure, while in cutaneous SCC require surgical excision, cryosurgery, electrosurgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. However, both in human medicine and in veterinary medicine, one of the major challenges in the differential diagnosis of AK, also considered pre-neoplastic lesion, is the distinction of the initial SCC, based only on clinical and histopathological confirmation. Thus, we intend to investigate the expression by immunohistochemistry of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor, Glucose Transporter 1, and Ki-67. For this purpose, fifteen dogs with skin lesions clinically similar to AK and SCC will be selected, confirmed by histopathology, chosen from the clinical routine of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital of FCAV/UNESP, campus of Jaboticabal, in order to check the value of prognostic markers in AK and in SCC, and in skin without any abnormalities from the same dogs. Additionally, quantify the expressions in different histological grades of cutaneous SCC and correlate with the expressions obtained in AK and in the skin without histopathological changes from the same dog, comparing to the expression in healthy skin of fifteen healthy dogs (negative control group). Clinical assessment of prognosis will be performed by fine needle aspiration cytology of marginal lymph nodes and periodic clinical evaluations. The results will be evaluated by statistical methods. (AU)