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How Pancreatic Cancer Is Diagnosed in Dogs

by A reader

Reader Question
My son has a 10-year old pit bull mix that he has raised from 6 weeks. They are extremely close, truly best friends! He has had symptoms over the last 3-4 months, primarily loss of appetite, diarrhea and vomiting...Has lost considerable weight. Our son took him to the vet e.r., and they did blood work about 3 months ago. He changed his diet and watched him closely, however, the condition improved, regressed, improved, regressed, etc. He went back to another vet a week ago and was referred to an Internal Med Vet Specialist. He did no blood work, but did an ultrasound, which showed an "abnormal" pancreas.....he suspected cancer....but the U/S was admittedly "challenging" to read and decipher. He then did a a needle aspiration, sent it to the lab...today we were informed that the lab confirmed pancreatic cancer.

Is there any established protocol for diagnosing this disease? Should we get some confirmation from the lab? The ER Vet stated that the blood work they did should have shown the disease, at least to the extent that there was pancreatitis present. This specialist said that wasn't necessarily true because the paraphrasing amylase level wasn't definite through normal bloodwork. The internet seems to have different approaches to diagnosing this disease. It was almost impossible to see any true abnormality on ultrasound....The pancreas was depicted in
the literature as globular in appearance, and appeared so on the U/S. Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks!


Answer from Our Team

I'm very sorry. Pancreatic cancer is uncommon in dogs and hard to diagnose, so your questions are fair. Routine blood work often does not show it. Pancreatic enzyme levels can be normal, or raised for other reasons such as pancreatitis, so a normal or unclear blood test does not rule it out.

Ultrasound is the usual first imaging test, but the pancreas is small and can be hard to see, especially with gas in the gut. A needle sample of cells (cytology) that shows cancer cells is strong evidence. Ask the specialist whether the lab report called it a carcinoma or adenocarcinoma, and how confident the pathologist was. If you want more certainty, options include a second pathologist reviewing the slides, a CT scan to look for spread, or a biopsy during surgery, though surgery is a big step.

Many dogs with this cancer have spread by the time it is found, so the focus is often on comfort: nausea control, appetite support, pain relief and an easily digested diet. Ask the specialist about the likely outlook and a quality-of-life plan, so you know what signs mean it is time to talk again.

See pancreatic cancer in dogs.

This is general information, not a diagnosis. Please follow your own vet's advice.

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