Did my dog's lipoma become a mast cell tumor, or was it misdiagnosed?

Question

my dog now 10 yr old was diagnosed with a lipoma 2 years ago. Now have been told it’s a likely mast cell. Could it have changed or was it missed. Pet's info: Dog | Border Terrier | Male | neutered | 25 lbs

Ana M, DVM · Accepted Answer

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Dylan. A procedure known as a fine needle aspirate is used to diagnose tumors just below the skin. A small sample of cells are collected from the mass and evaluated under the microscope. If this was not done when the mass was originally called a lipoma then then diagnosis could have been incorrect. If this procedure was performed then there are two things that could have happened. First, I have seen cancerous masses that have fat cells interspersed throughout them. So the sample collected could have only revealed fat cells, while there were mast cells present that did not show up on the slide. The other scenario is that the original mass was a lipoma and a mast cell tumor has grown over it in the past several years. I have seen this happen as well. I hope this information helps!

Did my dog's lipoma become a mast cell tumor, or was it misdiagnosed?

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