Somatic Mutations and Immunohistochemical Expression in Canine Oral Melanoma.

Canine oral melanoma (COM) is an aggressive neoplasm with a low response to therapies, sharing similarities with human mucosal melanomas. In the latter, significant alterations of the proto-oncogene have been shown, while in COMs only its exon 11 has been adequately investigated. In this study, 14 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded COMs were selected considering the following inclusion criteria: unequivocal diagnosis, presence of healthy tissue, and a known amplification status of the gene (seven samples affected and seven non-affected by amplification).