Cancer having its origin in the bones is referred to as bone cancer in medical terms. Bone cancers are relatively uncommon when compared to metastatic (cancer occurring initiated in another organ and spreading to bone tissues) or secondary cancer.
Bone Cancer Causes
Underlying causes behind bone Cancer is still unclear. However, there are certain risk factors that have been identified. Most of them suggest that Estrogen, female hormone, plays an imperative role in development and progress of this cancer. It's known that women, having menstrual period for the first time before 11 or at a very later stage in their life, are more prone for developing this disease. The reason being that they remain exposed to higher levels of estrogen for a longer period of time. Again, count of menstrual cycle prior to first pregnancy is also considered significant. Experts believe that women having their first child below the age of 20 might be affected in the near future. Breastfeeding offers additional protective effect.
Bone Cancer Symptoms
Bone Cancer Symptoms are many linked to the location of the bone, which has been affected by cancer in the body. Common symptom associated with bone cancer is tenderness, swelling or pain in the affected area. Lump formation might also accompany bone cancer in a patient. Although the detection of lump associated to the cancer is difficult in the early stages, it can be felt when the disease occurs in or around the joints. Still, you cannot consider any of these symptoms as prominent signs of bone cancer.
Bone Cancer Treatment
Treatment for cancer of bone, mainly metastatic cancer, has 2 goals:
-Managing neoplasm
-Managing symptoms produced by local lesion
Prognosis is mainly affected by patient's age, primary tumor size, lymphatic & blood vessel invasion degree, symptoms duration and tumor location on arm, trunk or leg.
There are 2 methods for treating bone metastasis. Systemic Therapy is aimed for treating cancer cells spread throughout your body. It includes hormone therapy, immunotherapy and chemotherapy. Local therapy is aimed towards killing cancerous cells of a specific portion on the body. It includes surgery and radiation therapy.
Surgery:
It is often extensive and involves the removal of a wide margin of tissue surrounding the tumor. Sarcomas, which involve muscles, also require removing the entire affected group of muscles.
Radiation Therapy:
It is mainly used for preventing local recurrence of radiosensitive tumor and given either before or following the surgery.
Chemotherapy:
Several drugs have proven effective for treating bone & soft tissue sarcoma. However, required dosages for providing a great chance to cure might lead to significant side-effects. Effective agents include cyclophosphamide, etoposide, vincristine, ifosfamide, doxorubicin (Adriamycin), dactinomycin (Actinomycin D), dacarbazine and investigational agent. In some cases, even combinations of all these drugs are used.
Hormone Therapy:
It's either removal of organs producing hormones promoting growth of specific cancer types (testosterone and estrogen) or drug therapy for keeping hormones from promoting growth of cancer.
Even after completely removing bone or soft tissue sarcoma, significant risk is there that small tumors, left undetected, may spread to other regions in the body. Adjuvant Chemotherapy attempts for eliminating such tumor deposits.
Even, there are safer and effective methods for treating pain. Medications will allow people for being free of pain and continue the activities essential to them.
To Your Health!
