Primary and secondary malignant tumors affect skeletal system. Primary tumors are represented by sarcoma, and they arise in the joints or bones. Metastatic cancer develops from the malignant cells are formed in other affected by cancer tissues and organs and got there usually through the blood.
The bones are often the place where form the metastases in the primary tumors, such as breast or lung. Primary bone tumors are relatively rare.
Pain in the affected bones – one the most frequent bone cancer symptoms. Initially, the pain is not constant and more concerned about at night or while walking in the case of lower extremity injury. With the growth of tumor pain becomes constant.
The pain increases with movement and can lead to lameness in the presence of lower extremity swelling. Swelling in the area of pain may occur within a few weeks. Sometimes the tumor can be touching with the hands.
Fractures occur infrequently and may occur in the area of the tumor or proximity close to it. Common bone cancer symptoms arise in the dissemination process, and expressed in terms of weight loss and increased fatigue.
Bone pain, caused by primary and secondary tumors may be the first noticeable symptom for people. As a rule, this pain is deep, nagging and has a permanent character, besides, it doesn’t connect with any activity and physical stress. Sometimes, it causes insomnia. Off course, any pain can be a symptom of any other disease, but if it doesn’t pass for some time, you’d better turn to doctor.
Then, one of the common bone cancer symptoms may be swelling of limbs or joints, or even bones fragility in these places (in children). Even after light fall or minor accident, you can easily break your bone, as after malignant disease your organism is exhausted and bones are too weak. When the tumor as a result of salt calcium gets into the bloodstream from the bones, it raises the level of calcium in the blood and thus can cause nausea, vomiting, confusion and abdominal pain. The probability of this phenomenon increases when you get a second tumor.
So, how to get to know for sure, whether you are ill or not if you can’t occur any bone cancer symptoms.
As a rule, standard X-ray in most cases can detect bone tumor, which may seem like a cavity, or additional growth of bone tissue.
Computer tomography (CT) (sometimes with the additional introduction of contrast material) makes it possible to identify tumors shoulder belt, pelvic bones and spine.
Magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) is particularly useful in the defeat of the spine and spinal cord.
Radioisotope bone scanning using technetium can detect a degree of local spread of tumor or other bone lesion. This method is more effective compared with standard X-ray bones.
Biopsy (taking pieces of the tumor for the study) is compulsory, because it gives the right to confirm or exclude malignant bone lesion or cartilage tissue. In doing so, you can perform a biopsy needle or during surgery.
After detailed survey – specified the illnesses. Depending on the prevalence of the process can be set phase – from I to IV. And remember, if you feel some strange symptoms, turn to your doctor, as it maybe the fatal bone cancer symptoms.
Treatment depends on the localization of primary tumor and on bone cancer symptoms. For example, if it develops in the chest, secondary tumors of the bone is likely to treat by methods used for breast cancer, such as hormone therapy and chemotherapy.
Many bone tumors, especially the secondary, are active in the cells called osteoclasts that lead to the destruction of bone. The drugs, known as bisphosphonates, can give a very good effect, reducing the activity of osteoclasts and thus slowing or weakening the destruction of bones.
Long ago, in order to get rid of the primary bone cancer, medicine used surgery, sometimes, including amputation of affected limbs. Today, with the great variety of different instruments and new technologies, you can remove only affected zone and replace it with a bone implant, plastic, metal or with the help of new method – benign surgical intervention. If the patient is young and ready to begin the surgery, affected places, could be easy replaced.
There are few types of primary bone tumors (based on bone cancer symptoms and outpatient examination), from which depends the type of surgery and radiotherapy. For instance, to treat osteogenic sarcoma, is dangerous with radiotherapy after surgery. Diffuse endothelioma is very sensitive to radiotherapy, which is common after chemotherapy and before surgery.
An important role in the treatment of primary cancer plays chemotherapy. As a rule, it’s performed after surgery in case of osteogenic sarcoma and to eliminate any metastases, which may occur after surgery. This way of treatment is very popular among patients.
Recently, some doctors spend medication before surgery as an experiment with the intent to determine the combination of more favorable results. The purpose – to reduce the large tumor such way, that it could hold a scaled-down operation. When Diffuse endothelioma usually involves several cycles of chemotherapy before the operation to reduce the size of the tumor and subsequent surgery or radiotherapy.
For the patients who have bone cancer symptoms and have talked to a doctor, the first diagnostic test is an X-ray examination. Primary tumors of the bone provide a typical picture for rentgenogramme, which shows a dark spot in the affected area of bone or white spots in places where the tumors formed by the deposition of calcium in the formation of new bone (sclerosis). Bone scan is a more sensitive method than X-ray examination, which reveals a very small «hot spots», not visible on the rentgenogramme.
In the secondary cancer, when the place of primary tumor is known, biopsies are usually not required. If the primary lesion is not localized, biopsy is necessary for the production of a final diagnosis by examining the cells under a microscope. In such cases, usually resort to puncture biopsy under local anesthesia. Sometimes open-biopsy is required, which is an operation under general anesthesia.
Further examinations are conducted to determine whether the spread of cancer cells (in the case of primary tumor), or to detect the primary lesion (if the secondary and primary tumor is not localized). Such examinations include, as a rule, CT-scanning of chest (which often metastasised primary tumor lesion), ultrasound scanning of the liver.
The causes of primary bone neoplasms in general are still unknown. Persons suffering from chronic inflammatory diseases of the bones (Paget’s disease), are at higher risk of developing osteogenous sarcoma in adulthood or old age, but the disease occurs in a very small number of people.
Secondary bone tumors is always evolving as a result of primary tumors in other organs. Sometimes the primary tumor could be the first manifestation of the primary cancers, running completely asymptomatic.
Sarcoma develops from cells exposed by malignant degeneration of connective tissue, forming the skeleton. These tumors include osteosarcoma arising from the bone cells, chondrosarcoma – of cartilage cells, malignant fibrosarcoma and fibrohistiocytoma – of fibrous connective tissue cells, as well as lymphoma and Ewing’s sarcoma with bone marrow origin. These sarcoma composed of atypical cells fusiform shape with a high rate of cell division. Carkomy differ in nature of produced product, for example, osteosarcoma producing sarcomatous, or non-mineralized, bone.
The most frequent primary malignant bone tumors are the osteosarcoma. Their frequency is approximately 1:500 000, and in the U.S. each year 450-500 cases. These tumors occur in men slightly more often than women, while the average age of patients was 18 years for men and 17 for women.
Bone cancer – a malignant tumor that may develop throughout the bone system. Despite the fact that malignant bone tumors represent the second most common form of solid (dense, compact growing) tumors arising in children and young people aged between 10 and 20 years, this is a rare disease: a little more than 5 cases per million children to meet each year in the United States.
Any tumor that arises in the bone and connective tissue of the skeleton is called primary bone cancer. Second place on the incidence of primary bone cancers occurring in children and adolescents, take osteogenic sarcoma, which usually begins in the brain of the bone, and Ewing sarcoma, usually originating from bone marrow. Less common malignant tumors include chondrosarcoma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma bone.