The following article speaks about the signs and symptoms of bone cancer that can show that your bones are diseased. It also suggests certain tests that you can undergo to learn about your bone cancer condition clearly. Your bones are one of the important component of your body. One must maintain good bone health as well along with your complete health care.
Bone cancer is a condition that causes malignant tumor of your bones by killing healthy bone tissue cells. However, not every tumor of the bone is malignant. Tumor of malignant type is rarely seen. Therefore, in order to learn whether the developing tumor of your bones is cancerous or not, we must know what are the possible signs and symptoms of bone cancer.
Bone cancers are of two types; primary and secondary. Primary bone cancer indicates that cancerous cells develop within your bone cells, whereas secondary bone cancer indicates that cancer has affected your bone cells from another source. A secondary cancer condition happens when cancer occurs in one part of your body, increases gradually (if not treated or controlled), and then begins to affect the other neighboring body cells one by one. This process occurs during the advanced stages of cancer only.
There are different ways to learn whether you have cancer in your bones. Some of the common signs and symptoms can easily indicate that you may be suffering from bone cancer. However, you can undergo certain diagnostic tests to confirm about your bone's health. Lets us first learn about the common symptoms seen in an individual suffering from bone cancer.
Brittle bones
Cancer leads to damaging and destroying the cells of your bone. The cell structure of the bones begins to degenerate gradually. This leads to brittle and weak bones.
Pain
Pain is the most common sign seen in patients with bone cancer. Bone cancer causes degradation of your bone cells. Such conditions hamper various bone functionalities. Also, due to brittleness and weakness in your bones, your bones are unable to take weight of the nearby organs and thus results into causing pain in those affected areas.
Swelling
Depending on the location of the tumor, a swelling might develop around causing pain or inflammation. You can see a lump or mass developed on your outer skin. If cancer is present in your neck bone, a lump is formed at the back side of your throat. Such condition can make it difficult for your to breathe or swallow.
Fractures
Weak bones or brittleness in your bones makes it more likely to cause fractures.
Other common symptoms
One of the most common symptoms of any form of cancer is weight loss and tiredness. Cancer makes your immune system weak. It also degenerates the tissue cells where it is growing. Therefore, you are likely to lose weight during such health disorder. This also results in tiredness.
These signs and symptoms can however be a result of some other muscle or bone disorder as well. Therefore, in order to know about a confirmed result one must visit their physician for check up. Bone cancer can be detected using different tests like imaging test, biopsies, etc.
Following are the tests conducted to check whether you are suffering from bone cancer:
X-rays scan
Doctors view the site of cancer using an imaging mechanism called X-rays scan. Cancerous bones appear to be ragged instead of a solid structure. Also, tumors are easily detected in such scanning mechanisms.
Tissue Biopsy
Tissue biopsy is a process of collecting a small piece of tissue from your body to examine it under a microscope. In case of bone cancer, tissue cell samples from your bone or tumor around your bone are collected using a biopsy needle. This sample is analyzed under a microscope to check if the tissue sample of tumor is malignant (cancerous) or benign (non-cancerous)
Computer Tomography (CT) scans
A CT scan procedure is used to check whether cancer is present in your bones and spread to its nearby areas. Using a CT scan doctors can also perform biopsy procedure. The biopsy needle is guided to the location of the tumor using the scanning tool. Tissue samples are collected and examined further.
Radionuclide bone scans
Patients are infused with radioactive material that reside at the site of cancerous bone cells. Scanning is then performed by the radiologist to check for these substances in the imaging. The areas where radioactive substance stays looks black or gray on the scanned images. Such results indicate that cancer is present in your system.
There are other scanning mechanisms as well like Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans that are used for similar imaging process to detect bone cancer in your system.
If the results of such tests come out to be positive, it shows that you are suffering from bone cancer. You can visit an oncologist to get further details of your health condition. To fight cancer, follow all the necessary treatments and therapies that your oncologist suggests you. One of the best way to deal with bone cancer is to undergo a bone cancer surgery. You can discuss about the best way to cure a bone cancer disease with your oncologist.
