Demographics of dogs and cats with oral tumors presenting to teaching hospitals: 1996-2017.

Background: Oral neoplasia has been reported to account for 6-7% of all canine cancer and 3% of all feline cancers. To the authors' knowledge the last epidemiologic analysis of general oral cancer in dogs and cats was published in 1976. Objectives: The goal of this study was to report contemporary demographic information regarding oral tumors in dogs and cats. Methods: Information was collected from cats or dogs diagnosed with oral neoplasia from the Veterinary Medical Data Base. Medical records representing cases that presented to one of 26 veterinary teaching hospitals from January 1, 1996 through December 31, 2017 were included. Results: A total of 1,810 dogs and 443 cats were identified. A total of 962 cases (53.6%) of canine oral tumors were classified as malignant and 455 cases as benign (25.4%). The majority of feline oral tumors were classified as malignant (257 cases, 58.1%) and only a few benign (11 cases, 2.5%). The incidence of oral tumors was calculated to be 4.9 per 1,000 dogs (0.5%) and 4.9 per 1,000 cats (0.5%). Conclusions: This incidence of oral tumors is considerably higher than previously reported in both dogs and cats. These results provide valuable information for generation of hypotheses for future investigations of breed-based and pathology-based oral neoplastic studies.