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Novel Treatment for Ocular Squamous Cell Carcinoma Looks Promising

March 27, 2020
Posted by Stacey Oke, DVM, MSc

Veterinarians successfully used a treatment option from human medicine to reduce squamous cell carcinomas in horses’ eyes.

Topics: AAEP Convention 2019, Cancer, Diseases and Conditions, Eye & Ear Problems, Other Eye Problems

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Novel Treatment for Ocular Squamous Cell Carcinoma Looks Promising

Although typically slow to spread, squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) aggressively invade local tissue, causing tissue damage and dysfunction. | Photo: Courtesy Dr. Dennis Brooks

Although typically slow to spread, squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) aggressively invade local tissue, causing tissue damage and dysfunction. SCC remains the most common neoplasia (tumor) of the equine eye, occurring in, on, or around the eye, and is the second most common tumor in horses.

Depending on the location and how invasive the tumor is at the time of diagnosis, treatment can be challenging. In addition to surgical excision, which may not be feasible, other treatment options include cryotherapy, topical/injectable chemotherapy, and photodynamic and radiation therapy.

At the 2019 annual convention of the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP), held Dec. 7-11 in Denver, Kathryn Wotman, DVM, Dipl. ACVIM (Large Animal), Dipl. ACVO, assistant professor of comparative ophthalmology at Colorado State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, described an option from human medicine that was recently applied to horses.

“Topical and intra-tumoral immunotherapy using interferon alpha-2b was recently evaluated as an alternative therapy in people with ocular SCC,” Wotman said

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Written by:

Stacey Oke, DVM, MSc

Stacey Oke, MSc, DVM, is a practicing veterinarian and freelance medical writer and editor. She is interested in both large and small animals, as well as complementary and alternative medicine. Since 2005, she’s worked as a research consultant for nutritional supplement companies, assisted physicians and veterinarians in publishing research articles and textbooks, and written for a number of educational magazines and websites.