Bone Cancer Symptoms
Primary Bone cancer is the cancer that begins in the bone. It can be found in any bone of the body but the most often area is in the legs and arms.
There are several types of bone cancer and symptoms. Osteosarcoma is the most common type of bone cancer. Follow by Chondrosarcoma and Ewing’s sarcoma.
Bone cancer treatment has depends on the type of cancer, also the size and location of the cancer. Despite of which type of bone cancer, the most common bone cancer symptoms is pain - persistent pain, swelling, or tenderness of a bone. In many cases, the symptoms become gradually more severe with time. It may goes on for weeks, months or years, depends on the growth of the tumor.
Others bone cancer symptoms including the following:
- Joint swelling & tenderness
- Fatigue
- Unintended weight loss
- Weakened bones
- Anemia
A doctor will usually advise to do a bone scan to identify areas of rapid growing bone. It involves the whole body bone scan to see if there are any other areas of bone involvement.
The most common type is CT scan (CAT scan) and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). It gives a very detailed report allowed the doctor to identify a possible tumor and location.
Like any other cancer, the most common treatment for bone cancer is surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Again it depends on the type of cancer and it size and location. In the past, amputation was the most common treatment for bone cancer patient. But today, advance in surgical techniques has help to reduce the tragic for amputation.
The advanced surgical allows the removal of the entire tumor without having to remove the whole limbs. Limb-sparing surgery also make possible for the replacement of the cancerous bone with an artificial device from another part of body.
Before or after the surgery, doctor may advice for chemotherapy or radiation therapy to prevent recurrences of tumors.
However there are still some risks and side effect for each of the treatment of bone cancer i.e. infection, recurrence of cancer or injury to the surrounding tissues. Therefore, your description of your bone cancer symptoms can help your doctor identify the possibility of bone cancer causes and advice the best treatment for the cancer.