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Electrochemotherapy is a novel and highly effective technique used to destroy skin cancers in the horse. The therapy increases the intracellular concentration of chemotherapeutic by 1000 fold resulting in a 20 fold increase in tumor die off. This technique is highly effective in the treatment of sarcoids with over 98.5% success at the end of a 4 year follow-up period (Tamzali 2011). It has also been found to be highly effective for the treatment of squamous cell carcinoma, melanoma, and many other cutaneous tumors.

Chemotherapeutic injections are used commonly to treat tumors of the skin including sarcoids, squamous cell carcinomas, and melanomas. They can be used in combination with surgical excision and an oil emulsion in order to improve treatment efficacy. Electrochemotherapy should also be considered in more difficult to treat tumors.

Chemotherapy can also be employed as a systemic treatment for lymphoma and other types of bodily cancers. Horses tend to have few side effects when compared to humans undergoing chemotherapy and may go into remission following treatment, depending on the type and severity of cancer being treated.

The melanoma vaccine is a conditionally licensed product that can be used in horses for​​​​​​​ the treatment of melanoma in grey and non-grey horses. It has shown promise in many cases of melanoma. If you have questions, contact us for more information.

Surgical excision of tumors is often recommended to prevent local enlargement and in some cases metastasis. Diode laser can occasionally be used in combination with other surgical methods to decrease the occurrence of recurrence. Other methods including adjunctive chemotherapeutic injection and electrochemotherapy should be considered in more involved cases.