My dog has growths. Does he need surgery or can we biopsy first?

Hi and thanks for posting! If it is a small mass, taking a biopsy may be hard to do. They do need a fairly good and complete piece of tissue to properly evaluate it. Sometimes if small masses are concerning from appearance to your veterinarian, they may recommend just removing it completely and sending off the tissue to a pathologist for evaluation. I hope this helps!

Thank you for your question. The answer is dependent on the growth found. The only growth that would commonly not be recommended for biopsy/that is more easily identified just based on visual appearance would be a lipoma, or fatty tumor https://veterinarypartner.vin.com/default.aspx?pid=19239&id=5233990 . Most other growths would be sent out unless a previous aspirate was done to determine the type of growth. Otherwise, it is not possible just by gross (with the naked eye) examination to determine the origin of a tumor.

Very small masses can be tricky to get enough of the needle in the mass without going through it. This area of the body can be tricky to get enough margins due to the lack of tissue before you hit bone, and the movement in the joints makes closure difficult. It could be any number of soft tissue masses, including a wart, mast cell tumor, squamous cell carcinoma, etc. If your vet cannot get enough cells for diagnosis with a fine needle aspirate, simply taking a surgical biopsy without removing the entire mass is an option. When we do bloodwork prior to anesthesia, we are checking the liver and kidney values are normal, no anemia or signs of infection, adequate protein levels, etc. we just want to be aware of any issues inside the body to be able to adjust anesthetic protocols.

I am assuming that your vet did a needle aspirate and wasn't able to get a diagnosis. The only way to know the cause of the lumps would be to remove them and submit to a lab for biopsy. As long as he is otherwise healthy then the risk of anesthesia is low. If he needs a dental cleaning then your vet could do both at the same time. If you don't want to have them removed then you could monitor for a month or so and see how the lumps change. If they are growing then they really should be removed.

I hate to see this lesion on Balto. Balto needs to have that area biopsied. For this he will need to be sedated for this. The sample will then need to be sent into a lab for analysis. He may also benefit from a radiograph to see if the bone is involved. This may point towards an aggressive cancer if it is and this may help you to make a decision. I hope this provides some guidance. Please feel free to post any additional questions.

Hello. An actual biopsy is often much more diagnostic than an aspirate, but honestly, with a lesion this small, why not just remove the whole thing now & send it for pathology? If the entire lesion is removed, this may be curative. I would talk to your veterinarian about this option. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Hi there. This is often a question of personal preference, because there are pros and cons to doing a needle aspirate beforehand. If the aspirate shows that the tumor is benign (a histiocytoma, or something similar), then it's true that surgery could be avoided. However, if it shows something malignant, like a mast cell tumor, then Harvey will still need surgery and the mass will still have to be sent for histopathology for grading and other information that can't be obtained from an aspirate. Also, it's important to be aware that around 20-25% of needle aspirates come back with inconclusive results - so in that case, you'll need to proceed to a surgical biopsy or surgical removal regardless. So, it's not as clear cut a decision as you might think. For me, I often recommend going straight to surgery for a small, easy-to-remove mass that appears to be growing (or not shrinking) rather than doing an aspirate first, since the aspirate doesn't usually change our plan. But you can certainly discuss this with your veterinarian - I'm sure he would be happy to aspirate the mass before going ahead with surgery, if this is what you prefer.