Letter to the Editor
DOI: 10.1111/vco.12133
Sao Paulo Animal Cancer Registry, the first in Latin America Cancer Registries are flexible, multicentric and standardized systems to collect data from patients bearing neoplasia. Animal Cancer Registries have been sporadic, short duration and located in North America and Western Europe.1 – 3 As there were no cancer registries, the majority of veterinary epidemiological cancer research in Brazil has been based on studies involving single veterinary hospitals or clinics. This is a report of the first animal cancer registry in Brazil and Latin America, i.e. the Sao Paulo Animal Cancer Registry (RCA-SP). Sao Paulo is the capital city of Sao Paulo state and has an estimated population of 11.2 million people, 2.5 million dogs and 562 000 cats.4 The city offers potential for comparative epidemiological research with the series of studies involving dogs as sentinels of environmental contamination.5,6 The RCA-SP is a hospital-based registry created in 2013 and seeded at the School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science of the University, Sao Paulo, Brazil. A web-based system was developed for use in the cancer registration process. The idea was to provide clinicians with an electronic medical record system to capture and store pertinent data to RCA-SP central database. A pre-inclusion tool, using a series of internal data matches and manual check, avoids duplicated entries – independent of patient flow around partner centres. RCA-SP collects information about owners (including address), animal species (dogs and cats), diagnosis, stage, pre-institutional diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. Every cancer case is identified according to the basis of its diagnosis, to avoid underestimating cases without final histopathological results. A standard form, using predominantly closed fields and international codes systems, categorizes data comparable with other animal and human registries. Staging system follows official WHO veterinary TNM publication.7 The International Classification of Diseases for Oncology, 3rd edition (ICD-O-3)8 was adapted to include specific morphology and
154
topography codes for companion animal cancers. Special diagnosis codes were created for mammary cancer according to the Brazilian Mammary Tumor Consensus.9,10 The RCA-SP allows retrieval of cancer distribution in the city, socioeconomic effect on cancer occurrence and survival, and best allocation of resources for research and prevention campaigns. In addition, we hope to educate professionals about the importance of having an information system regarding cancer in animals, in order to provide the information for epidemiological studies and surveillance. The RCA-SP includes 30% (3/10) of teaching hospitals, 6.89% (4/58) of veterinary hospitals and 0.19% of veterinary clinics (3/1587) in the city of Sao Paulo, and it is gradually expanding its partnerships. The initiative has been very well received by the Brazilian veterinary cancer community. We look forward to presenting the first animal cancer epidemiological studies soon.
Acknowledgements This study is part of the MS Dissertation of Marcello Vannucci Tedardi in the Experimental and Comparative Pathology Program of the School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science of the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Marcello was the recipient of a MS fellowship from Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), process number 2012/10957-8. The authors are grateful for the financial support from the Research Support Center in Veterinary Oncology (NAP-ONCOVET) and from FAPESP, Process number 2013/04434-5.
M. V. Tedardi Department of Pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
D. B. Veneziano Cancer Registry, Hospital-Based Cancer Registry of the Amaral Carvalho Foundation, Jahu, Brazil
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Letter to the Editor
K. C. Kimura Department of Pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
P. Pedra-Mendonça Department of Surgery, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
L. R. Biondi Department of Pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
F. Grandi Department of Pathology, Botucatu Medical School, Sao Paulo State University, Botucatu, Brazil
M. do R. D. de O. Latorre Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
M. L. Z. Dagli Department of Pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil e-mail: [email protected]
References 1. Brønden LB, Flagstad A and Kristensen AT. Veterinary cancer registries in companion animal cancer: a review. Veterinary and Comparative Oncology 2007; 5: 133–144. 2. Vascellari M, Baioni E, Ru G, Carminato A and Mutinelli F. Animal tumour registry of two provinces in northern Italy: incidence of spontaneous tumours in dogs and cats. BMC Veterinary Research 2009; 5: 39 doi:10.1186/1746-6148-5-39.
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3. Nødtvedt A, Berke O, Bonnett BN and Brønden L. Current status of canine cancer registration – report from an international workshop. Veterinary and Comparative Oncology 2012; 10: 95–101. 4. Canatto BD, Silva EA, Bernardi F, Mendes MCNC, Paranhos NT and Dias RA. Caracterização demográfica das populações de cães e gatos supervisionados do município de São Paulo. Arquivo Brasileiro de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia 2012; 64: 1515–1523. 5. Zanini DA, Kimura KC, Nishiya AT, Ubukata R, Leandro RM, de Brito CP, et al. Environmental risk factors related to the development of canine non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Ciência Rural. Universidade Federal de Santa Maria 2013; 43: 1302–1308. 6. Kimura K, de Almeida Zanini D, Nishiya A and Dagli ML. Domestic animals as sentinels for environmental carcinogenic agents. BMC Proceedings 2013; 7(Suppl. 2): K13. 7. Owen LN. Animals, TNM Classification of tumors in domestic. Geneva, World Health Organization, 1980. 8. OMS. Classificação Internacional de Doenças para Oncologia. 3rd edn., Sao Paulo, Brazil, World Health Organization, 2005. 9. Cassali GD, Lavalle GE, de Nardi AB, Ferreira E, Bertagnolli AC, Estrela-Lima A, et al. Consensus for the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of canine mammary tumors. Brazilian Journal of Veterinary Pathology 2011; 4: 153–180. 10. Cassali GD, Lavalle GE, Ferreira E, Estrela-Lima A, de Nardi AB, Ghever C, et al. Consensus for the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of canine mammary tumors – 2013. Brazilian Journal of Veterinary Pathology 2014; 7: 38–69.
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Veterinary and Comparative Oncology, 13, 2, 154–155
Copyright of Veterinary & Comparative Oncology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
DOI: 10.1111/vco.12133
Sao Paulo Animal Cancer Registry, the first in Latin America Cancer Registries are flexible, multicentric and standardized systems to collect data from patients bearing neoplasia. Animal Cancer Registries have been sporadic, short duration and located in North America and Western Europe.1 – 3 As there were no cancer registries, the majority of veterinary epidemiological cancer research in Brazil has been based on studies involving single veterinary hospitals or clinics. This is a report of the first animal cancer registry in Brazil and Latin America, i.e. the Sao Paulo Animal Cancer Registry (RCA-SP). Sao Paulo is the capital city of Sao Paulo state and has an estimated population of 11.2 million people, 2.5 million dogs and 562 000 cats.4 The city offers potential for comparative epidemiological research with the series of studies involving dogs as sentinels of environmental contamination.5,6 The RCA-SP is a hospital-based registry created in 2013 and seeded at the School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science of the University, Sao Paulo, Brazil. A web-based system was developed for use in the cancer registration process. The idea was to provide clinicians with an electronic medical record system to capture and store pertinent data to RCA-SP central database. A pre-inclusion tool, using a series of internal data matches and manual check, avoids duplicated entries – independent of patient flow around partner centres. RCA-SP collects information about owners (including address), animal species (dogs and cats), diagnosis, stage, pre-institutional diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. Every cancer case is identified according to the basis of its diagnosis, to avoid underestimating cases without final histopathological results. A standard form, using predominantly closed fields and international codes systems, categorizes data comparable with other animal and human registries. Staging system follows official WHO veterinary TNM publication.7 The International Classification of Diseases for Oncology, 3rd edition (ICD-O-3)8 was adapted to include specific morphology and
154
topography codes for companion animal cancers. Special diagnosis codes were created for mammary cancer according to the Brazilian Mammary Tumor Consensus.9,10 The RCA-SP allows retrieval of cancer distribution in the city, socioeconomic effect on cancer occurrence and survival, and best allocation of resources for research and prevention campaigns. In addition, we hope to educate professionals about the importance of having an information system regarding cancer in animals, in order to provide the information for epidemiological studies and surveillance. The RCA-SP includes 30% (3/10) of teaching hospitals, 6.89% (4/58) of veterinary hospitals and 0.19% of veterinary clinics (3/1587) in the city of Sao Paulo, and it is gradually expanding its partnerships. The initiative has been very well received by the Brazilian veterinary cancer community. We look forward to presenting the first animal cancer epidemiological studies soon.
Acknowledgements This study is part of the MS Dissertation of Marcello Vannucci Tedardi in the Experimental and Comparative Pathology Program of the School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science of the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Marcello was the recipient of a MS fellowship from Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), process number 2012/10957-8. The authors are grateful for the financial support from the Research Support Center in Veterinary Oncology (NAP-ONCOVET) and from FAPESP, Process number 2013/04434-5.
M. V. Tedardi Department of Pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
D. B. Veneziano Cancer Registry, Hospital-Based Cancer Registry of the Amaral Carvalho Foundation, Jahu, Brazil
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Letter to the Editor
K. C. Kimura Department of Pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
P. Pedra-Mendonça Department of Surgery, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
L. R. Biondi Department of Pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
F. Grandi Department of Pathology, Botucatu Medical School, Sao Paulo State University, Botucatu, Brazil
M. do R. D. de O. Latorre Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
M. L. Z. Dagli Department of Pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil e-mail: [email protected]
References 1. Brønden LB, Flagstad A and Kristensen AT. Veterinary cancer registries in companion animal cancer: a review. Veterinary and Comparative Oncology 2007; 5: 133–144. 2. Vascellari M, Baioni E, Ru G, Carminato A and Mutinelli F. Animal tumour registry of two provinces in northern Italy: incidence of spontaneous tumours in dogs and cats. BMC Veterinary Research 2009; 5: 39 doi:10.1186/1746-6148-5-39.
155
3. Nødtvedt A, Berke O, Bonnett BN and Brønden L. Current status of canine cancer registration – report from an international workshop. Veterinary and Comparative Oncology 2012; 10: 95–101. 4. Canatto BD, Silva EA, Bernardi F, Mendes MCNC, Paranhos NT and Dias RA. Caracterização demográfica das populações de cães e gatos supervisionados do município de São Paulo. Arquivo Brasileiro de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia 2012; 64: 1515–1523. 5. Zanini DA, Kimura KC, Nishiya AT, Ubukata R, Leandro RM, de Brito CP, et al. Environmental risk factors related to the development of canine non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Ciência Rural. Universidade Federal de Santa Maria 2013; 43: 1302–1308. 6. Kimura K, de Almeida Zanini D, Nishiya A and Dagli ML. Domestic animals as sentinels for environmental carcinogenic agents. BMC Proceedings 2013; 7(Suppl. 2): K13. 7. Owen LN. Animals, TNM Classification of tumors in domestic. Geneva, World Health Organization, 1980. 8. OMS. Classificação Internacional de Doenças para Oncologia. 3rd edn., Sao Paulo, Brazil, World Health Organization, 2005. 9. Cassali GD, Lavalle GE, de Nardi AB, Ferreira E, Bertagnolli AC, Estrela-Lima A, et al. Consensus for the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of canine mammary tumors. Brazilian Journal of Veterinary Pathology 2011; 4: 153–180. 10. Cassali GD, Lavalle GE, Ferreira E, Estrela-Lima A, de Nardi AB, Ghever C, et al. Consensus for the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of canine mammary tumors – 2013. Brazilian Journal of Veterinary Pathology 2014; 7: 38–69.
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Veterinary and Comparative Oncology, 13, 2, 154–155
Copyright of Veterinary & Comparative Oncology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
