Answer: The most commonly occurring tumours in the cat are lymphosarcomas (malignant tumours) which account for one-third of the total. They are an important exception to the rule about cancer becoming more common with age; 40% of cats affected are under three years’ old. The organs most frequently involved are the thymus, the kidney and the intestines.
Tumours of the skin and of the mouth are also extremely common in the cat, and as mentioned before, the lungs are often involved in the secondary spread of tumours, causing coughing and difficulty in breathing.
Tumours of the mammary glands account for almost a quarter of all tumours in female cats, and almost all of these are malignant, i.e. cancerous. In fact, a much higher proportion of all tumours in the cat are malignant then in most other species. It has been estimated that each year neoplasia arises in between two and three cats in every thousand, and that in 80% of these cases it will be of the malignant from.
