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Hello
My friends dog Sassy had a lump on her belly. She went to the vet and he did the needle extraction and said it was all ok but he was going to remove it. Surgery was planned for a few weeks later as my friend had to go away. When surgery day come along the lump had disappeared so it was left at that. A couple of months later the lump come back. Another needle extraction and this time the vet said it was a lipoma. That's not what he said it was last time. Do lipomas go away and then come back or could this be something else? Every dog I have ever seen with lipoma gets them and they either stay put or grow bigger I have not heard of one disappearing before and then coming back. Thanks

Lipomas are not expected to disappear and recur. The most likely tumour to do this is a mast cell tumour. Note that fine needle aspiration does not 'diagnose' a lipoma, it simply finds fat. The ASSUMPTION is that if the only cells were taken from the tumour, and the tumour is only composed of fat, then the diagnosis is lipoma. BUT, if the fat was collected from adjacent the tumour and no cells were taken from the tumour itself, a misdiagnosis can happen.

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Dr Ken Wyatt BSc BVMS FANZCVS
Specialist Veterinary Oncologist
Perth Veterinary Oncology

Thanks for the reply. It come back to the same spot as before so maybe the vet was wrong and it is mast cell tumour? He did not send the extraction away the results were before she left the surgery.As this lump has been two different things in the same spot should it be extracted again but send off for more expert diagnosis?

Sorry about the late response!
Certainly a fine needle aspirate could be repeated and the sample sent to a specialist pathologist to assess. However this test is only as good as the sample that is collected. The only definite answer is going to come from submitting the whole lump to the lab for analysis. They will then be able to very quickly tell if it is a mast cell tumour with some fat, or a lipoma.

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Dr Ken Wyatt BSc BVMS FANZCVS
Specialist Veterinary Oncologist
Perth Veterinary Oncology