Frozen section biopsy is a feasible and accurate tool for diagnosing canine and feline oral tumors in a private veterinary oral surgery practice.

OBJECTIVE

To determine diagnostic agreement between frozen sectioning (FS) and formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue-processing methods for veterinary oral tumors and to chronicle the method and time required to perform FS sample processing in a private practice setting.

METHODS

27 canine and feline oral tumor samples were collected between October 2024 and February 2025 and processed in 2 ways: (1) in-house using FS and (2) conventional FFPE. All biopsies were interpreted by 2 veterinary pathologists, one who read the FFPE samples for normal diagnostic turnaround time, who then blinded and digitized the FS slides for submission to the second pathologist. The final diagnoses for FS and FFPE tissue samples were compared for each tumor. Mitotic count and FS slide quality were also recorded for each sample. Time elapsed between surgical biopsy and completion of FS was recorded.

RESULTS

Excellent diagnostic agreement (0.915 [95% CI, 0.775 to 1.0]) was documented in veterinary oral tumors processed with FS and FFPE methods. Poor to moderate agreement was documented between FS and FFPE mitotic counts (0.42 [95% CI, 0.12 to 0.65]). The mean total FS slide processing time was 19.80 minutes (SD, 8.58).

CONCLUSIONS

High diagnostic concordance was documented in veterinary oral tumors processed with FS and FFPE methods, with results similar to human studies. Slides were processed in a reasonable amount of time. Future study evaluating veterinary oral tumor FS samples using telepathology is warranted.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE: FS should be considered a feasible and accurate tool for intraoperative veterinary oral tumor diagnosis.