Tovero Mare Gets Gift of Sight by Pennsylvania Veterinarians

Veterinarians at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine recently collaborated with their School of Medicine counterparts to pioneer an innovative treatment for cancerous tumors around a horse’s delicate eye area.

Squamous cell carcinoma is a form of skin cancer caused by UV light exposure, and it seems to develop more frequently in horses lacking pigment around delicate eye tissue. When a tovero mare named “Anita” arrived at the​ Penn Vet New Bolton Center treatment facility with large cancerous masses around her eyes, the Penn Vet team decided to try to save the mare’s eyes by using photodynamic therapy—a cancer-killing laser treatment developed by the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine. Photodynamic therapy is more commonly used in human cancer treatment, so Penn Vet enlisted the help of their Penn Med colleagues to perform the procedure.

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