Those Blasted Sarcoids...

[thenovice]

Hi. I am looking for some good info on the treatments for equine sarcoids. I know that there are many out there, the majority being unreliable, but I am really interested in these in specific: BCG vaccination (how does it work?) and radio therapy (I need this explaned to me!!!). Any information related to either of these would be gratefully appreciated as my 5,000 word essay is becoming extremely tedious! Thank you ever so much.

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

There have been many, many threads about sarcoids on here hun so if you do a search you should find what you need for your assignment. Another source of advice and information is Professor Derek Knottenbelt's (Liverpool Uni) definitive article - googling should bring it up. You might want to note in your work that it is a real headache for owners how to identify whether a suspicious lump/area is a TRUE sarcoid or merely a lump/wart. Of course the only way to make a firm diagnosis is to take a biopsy but doing that may trigger further aggressive growth in a true sarcoid. I'm not sure how much experience there is out there on radiotherapy treatment for horses. Do any equine hospitals offer this to the ordinary horse owner? Radio therapy uses a radioactive source to "fire" a stream of radioactivity at a given site. Radiation exposure is of course very dangerous, especially to fast growing cells such as cancers (and hair follicles!). So the radiation is given at a level where there is minimum damage to normal cells but maximum damage to (fast growing) cancer cells. Of course as soon as you start talking about radioactive sources you know it's going to be very very expensive. I don't think many centres offer it at all and even if it is available, the cost to the average owner will be prohibitive. I imagine the treatment may also be excluded from many or all average insurance policies simply because of the cost.