Equine melanoma
An equine melanoma is a tumor that results from the abnormal growth of
These tumors can be either benign, meaning not cancerous, or malignant, meaning cancerous;
Melanoma in gray horses
Gray horses have a higher susceptibility to melanoma than any other coat color, with up to 80% of gray horses developing some kind of melanoma in their lifetime.
Frequency
One study of gray
In
Types of melanoma
Not all melanoma tumors are the same; there are four different types of melanomas that can be found in horses.
Melanocytic nevus
This type of tumor is found in younger horses, around 5 years of age, and are usually benign. They can develop on horses of any color as small single masses, less than 2.5 cm (0.98 in), anywhere on the body.[12]
Dermal melanoma
These tumors are usually benign, but can become malignant over time. They vary in size, and can be found as singles or multiples. They are most commonly found in mature grey horses (less than 15 years old), typically under the tail, around the anus, and on the external genitalia.[12]
Dermal melanoatosis
These tumors are frequently malignant and have a high tendency to spread to other organs. They are most commonly found in gray horses over the age of 15 as a large coalescing mass under the tail, around the anus, on the external genitalia, or the parotid salivary gland.[12]
Anaplastic melanoma
These tumors are malignant and frequently spread to other organs. These are rare tumors, typically found in older (more than 20 years of age) non-gray horses.[12]
Treatment
There are several treatment options when a horse is found to have a melanoma tumor.
Surgical removal
The surgical removal of a melanoma tumor is performed when the tumors are small; this prevents the tumors from spreading to the surrounding areas.[13]
Intralesional cisplatin
Cisplatin is a chemotherapy drug that is injected into the tumor itself; this drug is commonly used along with surgical removal. That being said, this drug has been shown to resolve tumors with or without surgical removal for at least 2 years.[14]
Cimetidine
Cimetidine works by slowing tumor growth; it is a histamine blocker that maintains the body's immune response which aids in the killing of tumor cells. Cimetidine has not been proven to efficiently resolve tumors completely.[15]
Melanoma vaccine
A vaccine that is similar to the effective canine melanoma vaccine has been created for equine melanoma,[16] and is being studied at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Florida [4]
References
- ^ "NADIS - National Animal Disease Information Service -". www.nadis.org.uk. Retrieved 2016-11-26.
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- ^ .
- ^ a b c d Tannler, B (2013). "Equine Melanoma" (PDF). Equine Health Update. 15: 1–2.
- ^ a b c "Gray Coat Color/ Melanoma". www.horsetesting.com. Retrieved 2016-11-26.
- PMID 12141308.
- ^ S2CID 6666394.
- ^ "Northern Blotting". www.lifetechnologies.com. Retrieved 2016-11-26.
- ^ Wang, X., Seed, B. (2003). A PCR primer bank for quantitative gene expression analysis. Nucleic Acids Research, 31(24), e154; 1-8
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