It is a word that, when used in discussions involving one’s health, carries a dreaded connotation. Cancer. Some of the world’s most brilliant scientists have spent lifetimes seeking to understand and find a treatment for this disease. To be sure, there have been breakthroughs resulting in treatment modalities that have spared, or at least lengthened, the lives of many, but no one has yet come up with an overall preventive measure, and no one has developed a sure-fire cure.

Horses, too, can contract cancer. In the past, treatment of choice more often than not was surgery. However, research conducted by Alain P. Theon, DVM, MS, of the University of California, Davis, along with other researchers at the institution, indicates that some of the same treatment approaches that have been successful with humans will also work for horses, offering options other than radical surgery.

First, a few textbook facts about cancer. Basically, cancer can be described as a growth disorder of cells. It begins when an apparently normal cell starts to grow in an uncontrolled and invasive way. The result is a ball of cells known as a tumor that continues to expand in size.

When the tumor involves connective tissue, such as muscle, it is called a sarcoma