APPLICABILITY OF FLOW CYTOMETRY IN IDENTIFYING AND STAGING LYMPHOMA, LEUKEMIA AND MAST CELL TUMORS IN DOGS: AN OVERVIEW

Lymphomas, leukemias and mast cell tumors belong to the most important group among all neoplasms affecting dog  species. Diagnosis, staging and determining the cell type involved in a specific tumor represent a challenge for researchers and clinicians, and plays a crucial role in treatment efficacy and prognostic purposes. Many different gold standard techniques such as cytology, histopathology, immunohistochemistry and cytochemistry are used to routinely diagnose and stage these tumors. In the recent years flow cytometry is becoming more applicable in veterinary medicine since a wide number of health conditions can be analyzed in a short period of time with a high accuracy. Multiparametric analysis performed by flow cytometry is considered as one of the main advantages of this technique since cell populations can be analyzed for different superficial markers at the same time. Immunophenotyping and staging of tumor cell populations performed by flow cytometry can help in reaching a confirmatory diagnosis and appropriate prognosis of the disease. Moreover, many flow cytometric results have been linked to a high prognostic relevance especially in neoplastic disorders. However, flow cytometry results are compatible and should be interpreted in  compliance with data obtained by histopathology, immunohistochemistry and cytology. Key words: flow cytometry; antibodies; diagnosis; lymphoma; leukemia   UPORABNOST PRETOČNE CITOMETRIJE PRI PREPOZNAVANJU IN DOLOČANJU STADIJA LIMFOMA, LEVKEMIJE IN TUMORJEV MASTOCITOV PRI PSIH – PREGLED Izvleček: Limfomi, levkemije in tumorji mastocitov so najpomembnejše skupine neoplazem, ki prizadenejo pse. Diagnostika, določanje stopenj tumorja in tipa celic v določenem tumorju predstavljajo izziv za raziskovalce in klinike in igrajo ključno vlogo pri učinkovitosti zdravljenja in postavljanju prognoze. Za rutinsko diagnosticiranje in določanje stopenj teh tumorjev se uporablja veliko različnih temeljnih metod, kot so citologija, histopatologija, imunohistokemija in citokemija. V zadnjih letih je pretočna  citometrija vse bolj uporabljana metoda v veterinarski medicini, saj je mogoče v kratkem času in z visoko natančnostjo analizirati  veliko število zdravstvenih stanj. Ena izmed najpomembnejših prednosti te tehnike je multiparametrična analiza, s katero lahko v  populaciji celic istočasno analiziramo različne površinske označevalce. Določanje površinskih označevalcev in stopenj populacij tumorskih celic s pretočno citometrijo lahko pripomore k potrditvi diagnoze in postavitvi ustrezne prognoze bolezni. Številni  rezultati pretočne citometrije so imeli pomemben prognostični pomen zlasti pri neoplastičnih obolenjih. Vendar je rezultate pretočne citometrije potrebno združiti in razlagati v skladu s podatki, pridobljenimi s histopatologijo, imunohistokemijo in citologijo. Ključne besede: pretočna citometrija; protitelesa; diagnoza; limfom; levkemija