Cell proliferation is a fundamental criterion in the assessment of malignant progression of many tumours and an essential parameter in several grading schemes. However, proliferation may be dependent on patient age and other variables, as shown in normal tissues, cultured cells and human neoplasms. We thus hypothesized that age or other patient or tumour-related parameters might generally affect proliferation in canine neoplasms, which might be of value for optimizing prognostic algorithms. We performed linear regression analyses to associate age, sex and tumour size with digitally quantified immunohistochemical Ki67 labelling indices (Ki67-LIs) of 495 canine tumours, including cutaneous mast cell tumours (MCTs, n = 70), soft tissue sarcomas (n = 61), plasmacytomas (n = 86), trichoblastomas (n = 62) and perianal gland adenomas (PGAs, n = 95) as well as testicular interstitial (n = 65) and Sertoli cell tumours (n = 56). In MCTs, the Ki67-LI increased 1.13-fold per year of age (P <0.05) in bitches but not in males. Conversely, in PGAs it rose 1.10-fold per year in males (P <0.05) while it decreased 0.95-fold in bitches (P = 0.37). Only in MCTs and PGAs was the Ki67-LI associated with tumour size, albeit in oppositional directions (MCTs: 1.26-fold per cm diameter, P <0.01; PGAs: 0.76-fold, P <0.01). No correlations were found in the other tumour types. The few sex-dependent correlations with patient age and tumour size established here indicate highly tumour-type specific mechanisms, but the diagnostic consequences are uncertain.
Keywords: computer-assisted image processing; proliferation; tumour cell biology; tumour diagnostics.
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