ORIGINAL_ARTICLE It is widely accepted that psychological stress and mental illness can compromise the function of the immune system. Clinical and epidemiological studies on humans recognized that specific psychosocial factors, such as stress, chronic depression and lack of social support are risk factors for the development and progression of cancer. Unfortunately, most of the animals studies on this subject are based on laboratory tests performed on mice. This retrospective cohort study aims to analyze the relation between stress and tumor in pet dogs, by evaluating and comparing the stress level in two groups of 69 dogs each, balanced for sex and age: the oncologic group consists of dogs diagnosed with cancer and the control group consists of healthy dogs. Our results show that, before the cancer diagnosis, more dogs in the oncologic group faced changes in their household and routine as opposed to the control group (p<0.05). More dogs of the oncologic group than the control group also showed signs of stress and anxiety, before the cancer diagnosis (p<0.05). As reported by their owners, these included attention seeking, hiding without a specific reason, following the owner around the house, hyper-vigilance, fear of fireworks and gunshots, biting, aggression towards other dogs, licking and chewing excessively parts of their body. Our results are aligned with the evidence from human research, indicating that dogs with cancer are significantly more likely to have shown signs of stress compared to the control dogs during their life. https://macvetrev.mk/Files/Article/2019/10.1515/macvetrev-2016-0088/macvetrev-2016-0088.pdf 2016-10-15T09:00:00 201 208 10.2478/macvetrev-2016-0088 dog stress tumor problem behavior Simona Cannas simona_cannas@hotmail.com false 1 Dipartimento Medicina Veterinaria (DIMEVET),Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 10, 20133 Milano, Italy LEAD_AUTHOR Greta Veronica Berteselli false 2 via Giotto 20, 20060 Masate, Milano, Italy AUTHOR Patrizia Piotti false 3 Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth, King Henry Building, King Henry 1st Street, Portsmouth, PO1 2DY, UK AUTHOR Zita Talamonti false 4 Dipartimento Medicina Veterinaria (DIMEVET),Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 10, 20133 Milano, Italy AUTHOR Elisabetta Scaglia false 5 Dipartimento Medicina Veterinaria (DIMEVET),Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 10, 20133 Milano, Italy AUTHOR Damiano Stefanello false 6 Dipartimento Medicina Veterinaria (DIMEVET),Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 10, 20133 Milano, Italy AUTHOR Michela Minero false 7 Dipartimento Medicina Veterinaria (DIMEVET),Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 10, 20133 Milano, Italy AUTHOR Clara Palestrini false 8 Dipartimento Medicina Veterinaria (DIMEVET),Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 10, 20133 Milano, Italy AUTHOR Leonard B.E, Song C, Stress and the Immune System in the Etiology of Anxiety and DepressionPharmacol. 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