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My dog has a subcutaneous mast cell tumor. What's the outlook?

Updated on September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Labrador Retriever | Female | unspayed | 12 years and 2 months old | 64 lbs

How long can a dog survive a Mast cell neoplasia (subcutaneous without surgery

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

Answered By Destini R. Holloway, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on July 31st, 2017

Mast cell tumor survival rate is entirely dependent on the stage of the mast cell and the mitosis index (seen histologically). So this is a bit more involved than you were likely anticipating it to be. So if Lady has not had a biopsy to gather this information already then there is no way of determining her survival rate unfortunately.
The best prognosis is a grade 2 MCt with a mitosis index of 5 and a survival time of 5 months. Another study suggests that for high grade tumors (MCT grade 2 and above) the mean survival time is 2 hrs.

I hope this helps and feel free to post your question again once you have the necessary information of grading and mitotic index so we can tell you specifically what your pets cancer survival rate is. I am sorry Lady does have mast cell cancer and I hope that you can keep her comfortable for the time being. Best wishes and take care.

2Pet Parents found this answer helpful

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