Dogs commonly have lumps and bumps in or under their skin. It is important to determine whether the mass is benign or cancerous. Your vet may suggest a test called a fine-needle aspirate of FNA. No anesthesia is required. A few cells are sucked into a tiny needle and examined under a microscope for signs of cancer. The benefits of an FNA are that it is easy, fairly harmless, quick, and affordable. In some situations, your vet might prefer to perform a biopsy, removing a piece of the mass and sending the sample to the lab. A Cancerous mass of cells (malignant) and a non cancerous mass (benign) of cells have identical physical characteristic, for this reason a lump cannot be diagnosed by feel. Dog health continues to emphasize a balance between cost and quality of life, diagnosing lumps early may help owners prevent finding themselves with a high cost medical dilemmas. You may now be able to diagnose cancer in a dog with a simple blood test. A test which detects 85 percent of cancers in dogs at the standard 95 percent specificity level is now available. This test detects a substance which is elevated in the blood of animals with malignant tumors. MRI (magnetic Resonance Imaging) is a very detailed image of the internal organs of the dog allowing veterinarians to determine the presence of cancer.
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