Interesting Fact About Skin Cancer in Horses

JanJan63

I wasn't really sure what to title this post but something happened today that I find interesting. My daughter's horse was diagnosed with a sarcoma today. Most white or gray horses end up with them when they're older but my daughter's horse is a palomino and has had one since my daughter got her when she was only three years old. Anyways, here's what I thought was interesting.

There are three treatment options. One is to use a cream, another is to have it frozen off, and the third- which isn't as affective as either other options but might work- is to inject tiny beads into the area. The idea behind the beads is to make the body fight the cancer in that area. I've been told that one of the problems with cancer is that the body doesn't recognise it as something to fight off and just allows it to grow. Apparently warts are the same. And treatments for warts work because the body recognizes the irritant that's been put on it and heals that area, fighting the wart along with it.

She's had the sarcoid for four years that we know of and only recently has it started to spread a bit. It looks like kind of a crusty old scab. When she got her we treated it as a fungus and tried anti-fungal ointment on it. Of course, it didn't work.   

I hope you guys will find this of interest, too.

Jan

mysweetheartrusty

yes! We have a white pony

yes! We have a white pony that had the same problem develop around his eyes. The vet gave him a cream and the scab like cancer just wiped off one day.

It was a special type of radioactive cream he has to request custom from an apothecary. This was in our pre-cancer days and I remember thinking it was fascinating they had such a thing and if they had developed it for human use. The vet also said it worked on eye cancer and the eye tumor will also eventually just wipe off! I wish it could be that easy for everyone!

JanJan63

mysweetheartrusty said:

yes! We have a white pony

yes! We have a white pony that had the same problem develop around his eyes. The vet gave him a cream and the scab like cancer just wiped off one day.

It was a special type of radioactive cream he has to request custom from an apothecary. This was in our pre-cancer days and I remember thinking it was fascinating they had such a thing and if they had developed it for human use. The vet also said it worked on eye cancer and the eye tumor will also eventually just wipe off! I wish it could be that easy for everyone!

Thanks! Good to know. She's

Thanks! Good to know. She's still deciding on a course of treatment. It's slow growing and she wants to do what's going to be the most effective but also hopefully keep costs down.

Jan

NewHere

What You Describe

Is the basis of immunotherapy ( I think in most respects, if not all respects), which (hopefully) gets more effective every day.  At least according to all the commercials that seem to increase every day   The one for lung cancer creeps me out.  Optiva.  Just creepy as s--t commerical.  

I recall seeing things in the past regarding skin cancer and pigmentation in humans, though I think, like most things with cancer, there is still a ton of guessing and theories 

JanJan63

NewHere said:

What You Describe

Is the basis of immunotherapy ( I think in most respects, if not all respects), which (hopefully) gets more effective every day.  At least according to all the commercials that seem to increase every day   The one for lung cancer creeps me out.  Optiva.  Just creepy as s--t commerical.  

I recall seeing things in the past regarding skin cancer and pigmentation in humans, though I think, like most things with cancer, there is still a ton of guessing and theories 

I agree with you NewHere! It

I agree with you NewHere! It seems like the more information we get the more confusing it is. As for the lung cancer commercials, because I now have mets in my lung people keep telling me I'll be okay because of the commercials they've seen. They don't understand that the mets are still colon cancer, not lung cancer, and are treated differently. Just more confusion.

Jan

NewHere

Yup

When they saw the thing in my lung grow, based on the location and other things, the surgeon thought it may actually be a new cancer (as compared to a met).  But it is was readlly apparent it was a met when they looked when I was still in surgery.  Urgh.  Two clean scans since, though had a CEA tick up.  

Back to waiting for next set of scans, bloodwork and a biopsy.