Advancements in squamous cell carcinoma treatment and management
Rachel Allbaugh, DVM, MS, DACVO, summarizes some of the recent advancements available for treating and managing this disease
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During an interview with dvm360 at the Fetch Kansas City conference in Kansas City, Missouri, Rachel Allbaugh, DVM, MS, DACVO, a professor of ophthalmology at Iowa State University, discussed the latest developments in treating and managing squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in horses. While she highlighted some exciting new advancements, such as photodynamic therapy, Allbaugh also acknowledged that not all practitioners may have access to these options, emphasizing that relying on proven, historically effective treatments can still provide significant benefits.
Below is a partial transcript
Rachel Allbaugh, DVM, MS, DACVO: Probably the most recent advancement that we really like to utilize is photodynamic therapy, and this allows us to combine our surgical excision of the visible mass with the adjunctive treatment, where we give a light sensitive dye injected into the tissue, painted on the surface, and then we activate it with a special laser. The success rates with this photodynamic therapy are equal to, if not greater than the other adjunctive therapies, and really for the eyelid disease I have seen phenomenal healing capacity from these eyelids, which was not as disfiguring as some of the other therapies that we used in the past, and so that's the reason why that's probably my favorite advance.
But having said that, if you don't have that accessible in your area, it's definitely not a problem to use the other adjective, therapies that have been tried and true and can still offer benefit for the horses.
