If you want to find out about bone cancer, if you are looking for signs and symptoms of bone cancer, and you want to know the causes of bone cancer as well as the diagnostic and treatment methods for bone cancer and how long a person can have bone cancer without clinical manifestation, we recommend that you read on.

how long can you have bone cancer without knowing

What you will read next:

Introduction

One type of malignant tumor in humans is bone cancer.

Bone cancer is very rare compared to other tumors. It is generally said that less than one percent of all cancers in humans are bone cancer.

The target group for this disease is mostly children, but you should not think that this disease can affect only children, but adults can get it as well. Can a person with bone cancer not have noticed their bone cancer for a long time? In the following we study more about bone cancer.

What are the types of bone cancers?

We say that cancers in the bone are divided into two general categories.

  1. The first group are primary tumors that are actually of primary origin or bone itself.
  2. The second category is tumors that metastasize to bone tissue from cancers of other tissues in the body. Primary tumors that originate in the bone marrow itself are called sarcomas. These tumors are malignant and cancerous tumors.

In the first part, we want to mention some examples of these primary bone tumors, or in other words, some types of sarcomas that occur in bone tissue, and name and explain some of them.

The first tumor: Osteosarcoma

Doctors also call this type of tumor osteogenic sarcoma. It is said to be the most common primary cancer of the bone. The target group is often between the ages of ten and thirty, but ten percent of these tumors also appear in people in their sixties and seventies with osteoporosis. The most common sites for involvement are the bones of the arms, legs, and pelvis.

Second tumor: Chondrosarcoma

The second most common malignant tumor in bone tissue is Chondrosarcoma. In fact, in this tumor, it is the cartilage cells that become malignant, the most affected group is young people under the age of twenty, Conversely, people seventy-five years of age and older may also get the tumor. The most common sites are the bones of the pelvis and legs, and the disease may also affect the larynx, thorax, and chest.

third tumor: Ewing sarcoma

The tumor most commonly affects children and adolescents. The most common site is the tibia and pelvis, but it is not limited to these areas. Rarely, the tumor has been reported in chest and abdomen tissue.

Fourth tumor: fibrosarcoma

It is another type of bone cancer that affects most of the soft tissues around the bones. Middle-aged and older people are more likely to get this tumor, and their legs, arms, and jaw are more likely to get it.

Fifth tumor: Chordoma

This is the main tumor that can affect the skull and bones of the spine, and it mostly affects adults over the age of 30. Men are twice as likely as women to develop this tumor, If this tumor spreads and is not removed, it affects the lymph nodes in the lungs and liver.

The following two tumors are also found in bone.

  • Non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas

This tumor is seen in the lymph nodes, but in some cases, it manifests itself in the bones. Lymphoma is a disease that can affect the bones extensively.

  • Multiple Myeloma

The bone marrow of all the bones is usually involved in the tumor. The most common site of involvement is the lumbar bones of the pelvis and thigh, but sometimes the disease may be found in one bone but often spreads to the bone marrow of other bones.

What causes bone cancer?

It is not clear exactly what causes some people to get bone tumors, but researchers say that there are probably three factors involved in the development of this tumor, which we will name and explain below:

  1. Favorable genetics

There are some genetic syndromes that are inherited, including children with a tumor in the back of the eye. Retinoblastoma ocular tumor increases the risk of developing osteosarcoma bone cancer in an infected person.

  1. Radiation therapy

When a person is exposed to high doses of radiation therapy to treat other tumors, they are at greater risk of developing bone cancer in the future.

 

  1. Specific bone diseases

Like osteoporosis, it is more common in the elderly and increases the risk of bone cancer.

What are the signs and symptoms of bone cancer?

  1. Pain

One of the most important and common symptoms in a person with bone cancer is pain.

At the beginning of the disease, this pain is not constant, it may start at night or during activity, and it may intensify, for example, when walking, the person may notice pain, but with the growth of bone tumor, the person’s activities become painful and face serious problems.

  1. Inflation

The sore spot may be inflamed for a few weeks, but the swelling may usually not show up for a few weeks. Sometimes a person can feel the swelling due to the superficial location of the tumor, for example, discharge in the neck leads to a bulge in the back of the throat that makes it difficult for the person to swallow while breathing.

  1. Bone fractures

Cancer cells cause normal bone cells to die, causing the bones to weaken and become more fragile, and they may break on their own with the simplest and lightest hits or even without being hit.

 

  1. The fourth sign is unwanted weight loss and extreme fatigue

If the tumor has progressed, the person will definitely lose the ability to resist. In these stages, excessive fatigue and weight loss become very pronounced.

Diagnosis

‌The most basic and safest way to diagnose bone cancers is to take a sample from a suspicious site and send it to a laboratory for microscopic examination.

In fact, biopsies are the main way to diagnose these cancers. A biopsy, if interpreted correctly, will be able to identify the type of bone tumor.

Blood tests cannot help diagnose bone cancer, and a blood test can be used to make a more accurate diagnosis. For example, the fact that the levels of some compounds in the blood are high can lead the doctor to think of a possible diagnosis, that you must use other methods to prove. For example, In bone tumors, enzymes such as alkaline phosphatase and lactate dehydrogenase may be very high in blood tests, and these findings may indicate the progression of a bone tumor.

 

treatment

there are Three major types of treatment in bone tumors, which we will briefly describe below:

  • Surgery

The most common type of bone cancer treatment is surgery. Sampling may require surgery and following this the tumor is surgically removed and examined in a laboratory. Biopsy and surgery are two separate operations, but it is very important that your doctor prescribes both programs. If Biopsy is misplaced, there will be a lot of problems. The main goal of the surgeon is to kill all the cancer cells because even if a few cells remain, they may grow back and progress.

    • Another method is radiation therapy

High-energy rays are used to kill cancer cells. These rays shine on cancer cells with great power and energy. Most of the cells will not be easily destroyed by radiation, and eventually other methods will be added to affect the cells.

    • Other treatment method is chemotherapy

Chemical drugs prevent cancer cells from spreading to other areas, Chemotherapy is a universal treatment. Drugs enter the bloodstream and travel to cancer cells, and destroy them.

Recurrence or incidence of secondary cancer

People with cancer are afraid that the tumor will come back.

Treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy have side effects and can cause serious problems for the patient, and when we talk about cancer treatment, it does not mean that the person will not have other cancers after being cured of cancer in the first stage. this depends a lot on the type of cancer and the patient’s physical condition. A person may or may not get the next cancer.

Leave a Reply