HISTOVET Surgical Pathology provides rapid veterinary diagnostic histopathology and cytology,
with particular interest in dermatopathology, oncology, ophthalmology, and endoscopic biopsies.

• The prevalence has remained relatively unchanged over the past 5 years at about 4% of HISTOVET Surgical Pathology’s caseload (approximately 100 sarcomas per year).

• The interval between vaccination and tumor detection can be as long as 7 years (and perhaps longer).

• This makes it impossible to identify the causative vaccine if the cat has received annual vaccinations. Was it this year’s vaccine? Or the one given 3 years ago?

• It also means that we will continue to see this disease for many years even if the offending products were all removed from the marketplace.

• The youngest affected cat was 9 months old and had received only one "routine" series of vaccines as a young kitten.

• There are no examples of metastasis in the HISTOVET Surgical Pathology database.

• The database contains no data to assess the possible influence of altered vaccination sites (i.e. leg) or more aggressive excision techniques on the prevalence of post-operative recurrence (which I currently quote at 70% based on the 1998 HISTOVET survey results).

• Histologic assessment of "completeness of excision" is, in my experience, completely unreliable!

B.P. Wilcock

HISTOVET Surgical Pathology

January 2000

Table 1. Number of Sarcomas, Skin/Subcutaneous tissue and Total Feline Submissions per Year
* January 1 - February 14 inclusive.

Table 2. Percentage of Sarcomas, Skin/Subcutaneous Tissue to Total Feline Submissions per Year
* January 1 - February 14 inclusive.

About Dr. Brian Wilcock:

A 1973 graduate of the Ontario Veterinary College, Brian came to veterinary medicine with an unusual background in classical languages and philosophy. Despite a lifelong ambition to be a veterinarian and a work background in the purebred dog industry, he heeded early advice to separate his education from his job training. This philosophic background colours his work as a teacher and diagnostician, and even today his students refer to his course as "Wilcock's pathophilosophy". After completing his DVM, Brian obtained an MS and PhD in veterinary pathology from Purdue University in Indiana with special emphasis in gastrointestinal diseases. The published research from his MS work was voted paper of the year to be published in the prestigious journal "Veterinary Pathology".

Brian returned to Guelph to join the faculty of the Department of Pathology at the Ontario Veterinary College in 1977, where he is currently Professor of Pathology. Widely acknowledged as a teacher and as a diagnostician, Brian has received numerous awards including the Norden Award for Teaching Excellence, the University of Guelph Faculty Association Professorial Teaching Award and the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association Award of Merit. He was the first Visiting Professor invited to the newly-opened Atlantic Veterinary College and the D.L.T. Smith Visiting Scientist at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine. He is a frequently invited speaker at continuing education meetings locally, nationally and internationally on such topics as surgical pathology, oncology, dermatopathology and ophthalmology. He is the author of over 100 publications in scientific journals, 11 book chapters and 1 textbook.

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