Electrochemotherapy is an emerging veterinary cancer treatment that combines a chemotherapy drug (often a platinum based drug) with short, high‑intensity electrical pulses to make tumour cell membranes temporarily more permeable. This boosts the drug’s uptake into cancer cells, allowing it to work far more effectively at lower doses.

ECT is particularly valuable for skin and subcutaneous tumours that are difficult to remove surgically or are in sensitive locations, such as:

• Sarcoids – the most common equine skin tumour

• Melanomas

• Squamous cell carcinoma – often affecting eyelids, genital areas, or mucocutaneous junctions

Benefits

• Higher local drug effectiveness with lower systemic toxicity

• Minimally invasive/Shorter recovery time post intervention

• Useful for tumours resistant to other treatments

Considerations:

• Multiple sessions typically needed for best results

• Works best on small to medium‑sized tumours

• Requires specialised equipment and training

• Horses typically require a short anaesthetic to allow procedure to be performed

Photodynamic therapy is a two‑step cancer treatment:

Step 1: A photosensitising drug is applied to affected areas (in horse applications it is typically applied to tumour resection beds or the cornea); the drug then accumulates inside cells.

Step 2: Targeted light exposure – usually from a laser, at a very specific wavelength. This activates the drug thereby producing a highly reactive form of oxygen that:

• Destroys cancer cells directly

• Damages tumour blood vessels (cutting off supply)

• May stimulate the immune system to attack cancer cells

Benefits/indication:

• Precise treatment modality for tumours affecting delicate/critical tissues often around the eye where excisional therapies alone are of limited utility.

• Treatment resistant tumours

Laser surgery is typically undertaken in the sedated standing horse, aided by the use of local anaesthesia. Conditions commonly treated with laser surgery include skin conditions & tumours.

Cryosurgery is a minimally invasive procedure that uses extreme cold, typically produced by liquid nitrogen or argon gas, to destroy abnormal tissue such as cancer cells and skin lesions.

Standing procedures offered at REC-Canberra Equine Centre include; Upper airway endoscopic surgery, selected orthopaedic procedures, laparoscopy & caudal reproductive tract procedures