Mammary tumors in dogs can manifest itself the same way as it does in humans. According to Karin Sorenmo, a veterinary oncologist at Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine, Mammary gland carcinomas are the most common in intact dogs. Yet veterinarians have not had a reliable way to determine which dogs are fine with surgical treatment only, which dogs might need chemotherapy or hormonal treatment.

Dr. Sorenmo has developed a new “bio-scoring” system that gives veterinarians a more reliable prognosticating method. The work has been published in the journal Veterinary and Comparative Oncology.

The beauty of this system is that it is easy for veterinarians to use, taking much of the guess work out of evaluating dogs with breast cancer. This method was developed by a team of veterinarians, coauthors were Amy C. Durham, Michael C. Goldschmidt, and Darko Stefanovski of Penn Vet; Veronica Kristiansen of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences; and Laura Pena of Complutense University of Madrid.