Use of Mohs Micrographically Controlled Surgery in the Management of Equine Penile Squamous Cell Carcinoma

A 30-year-old palomino Standardbred horse was seen with a persistent penile squamous cell carcinoma. After failure using multiple treatments, surgical removal was successfully carried out under local anesthesia using Mohs micrographically controlled surgery. Subsequent examination of the malignant tissue identified bovine papillomavirus exclusively within the nuclei and cytoplasm of tumor cells. The use of Mohs surgery would appear to be useful as an effective, precisely controlled treatment for managing genital squamous cell carcinoma in equine subjects. The presence of papillomavirus within tumor cells would suggest the possibility of causation by an oncogenic papilloma virus and would indicate that careful monitoring of the surgical site should be performed.