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Peer-reviewed veterinary case report

Horse suddenly went blind - could it be melanoma?

By Murphy, J & Young, S·Published in Veterinary pathology·1979·View original on PubMed

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Original publication title: Intraocular melanoma in a horse.

Species:
horse

Plain-English summary

A 7-year-old grey gelding Quarterhorse suddenly went blind in one eye. A thorough eye examination showed a dark mass in the right eye that was attached to the area around the lens and had spread into the eye's interior. After the eye was removed for further study, it was found that the mass was made up of abnormal cells that were invading different parts of the eye. This condition was diagnosed as a primary malignant intraocular melanoma, which is a type of cancer that started from a pigmented growth in the eye. Unfortunately, the prognosis for this type of cancer is generally poor.

Abstract

Sudden unilateral blindness occurred in a 7-year-old grey gelding Quarterhorse. Ophthalmoscopy revealed a pigmented mass arising from the nasal ciliary body of the right eye and extending around the posterior surface of the lens, and there were pigmented particles in the vitreous. Examination of the enucleated globe showed a circumscribed, black, dense and symmetrically ovoid mass with sessile attachment to the nasal ciliary region and extension to posterior lens capsule, vitreous and along the vitreal face of the detached retina to the optic papilla. The mass was composed of heavily pigmented, plump, polyhedral cells that invaded the vitreous and the inner limiting membrane of peripapillary retina and optic papilla. It was considered to be a primary, malignant, intraocular melanoma arising from a large uveal nevus.

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Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/473483/