My dog has a breast lump. Biopsy or surgery first? Will it spread?

Hello I would check with your veterinarian about doing xrays to see if there is any evidence of spread to her lungs. Also discuss with your veterinarian if all of the mass was removed ("clean margins") or if additional surgery is needed. In some cases if there is no spread of the cancer and it was completely removed do further treatment is needed.

She may have mammary cancer which is fairly common in unspayed dogs. Your vet can perform either a biopsy or a fine needle aspirate and cytology to confirm the nature of the mass. If it comes back as mammary cancer, full screening pre-operative bloodwork as well as chest radiographs to rule out metastasis to the lungs will likely be discussed. If chest rads show that cancer has already spread to her lungs, unfortunately surgical removal under anesthesia may not be practical. Good luck-

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. I would recommend having this surgically removed and then send out the actual tissue sample for a definitive diagnosis. The test to have the slide interpreted and also to have the tissue sample interpreted are the exact same cost typically or very close in price, which is typically over $300. Why spend that much to have a slide interpreted when you can just have it removed and get a more definitive answer with an actual tissue sample being interpreted? The needle aspirate test is great but unfortunately it does not provide one with a definitive diagnosis. Since this is near a mammary gland I would want to know for sure what this is. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

Unfortunately mammary tumors are very common in unspayed dogs, and 50% of them are malignant. The prognosis depends on whether or not the tumor is malignant or not, and if it has spread. Given that it's growing, removing it would be best as well as spaying Lilly in my opinion (spaying her prevents her from developing a pyometra). The vet doing the surgery can submit the removed lump to a lab to determine if it's malignant or not, and likely will submit local lymph nodes to see if the cancer has spread there. That should give a prognosis as to life expectancy for her. I'm sorry you are going through this, and in the future, I strongly recommend to not listen to a groomer about veterinary medicine. They are not trained in veterinary medicine, and really should not be giving advice on lumps. Any suspicious lump should always be checked out by a vet promptly. Best of luck, I hope this helps!

Assuming Kara is in good health otherwise - which should be established with blood work and x-rays of the chest, to ensure that the tumor hasn't metastasized - then I would recommend proceeding with surgery. Mammary tumors can be quite invasive and aggressive, but depending on the grade surgery can be curative. Just because a dog is old, it doesn't necessarily mean they can't have anesthesia - you just have to take precautions, and find a vet who is capable of taking special care. I would also get a definitive diagnosis as to what the mass is before making any decisions, There are lots of benign lumps that grow all over dogs' bodies, and just because this one is in the mammary area, it isn't necessarily an aggressive cancer. A fine needle aspiration biopsy can usually tell you what these are.

As she is unspayed it's very likely a primary tumor of the mammary gland, it's not possible to know if it has already sent metastases to other places in the body though. the recommendation is to get it removed surgically ASAP.

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!