Cancer is seen as one of the most fatal diseases and the fact that cancer can occur at any age and can affect entire body has made it one of the difficult diseases to control. But with the growing technology, the disease can be easily diagnosed and treated without difficulties, better if it’s diagnosed earlier.
Of the various type of cancer, the bone cancer is the one that affects primarily the bone tissues and makes the bones weaker. The bone cancer is categorized as primary bone cancer and secondary cancer (also called as metastases). The primary cancer refers to the type of cancer that originates from the bone tissue and spreads from there. This is rare and bones are not always the part that’s first affected. The more common way that bones are affected is the metastatic way, where the cancerous cells from other organs spread and eventually attacks the bone tissues, and make the bone tissues to be cancerous too, though the bone tissues are not cancerous as in primary type.
Primary bone cancer:
The primary type of bone cancer can be further based on their tissues of attack.
- Osteosarcoma: The Osteosarcoma is the bone cancer that originates in the Osteoid tissues that are found in the longer bones of the body. The bones in the legs, arm bones, knees are the places of origin. The Osteosarcoma is a common type of primary bone cancer and accounts to about 30 -35 % of the primary bone cancer cases. This is most common in the young adults and children.
- Chondrosarcoma: The Chondrosarcoma is the primary bone cancer that occurs in the cartilages. The places of attack are mostly the pelvis and the shoulders, and are more prevalent in adults.
- Ewing’s sarcoma: Ewing’s sarcoma is the primary type of bone cancer that occurs in the hips and the thigh bones and mostly occurs in age group of 10 – 25.
- There are other lesser occurring bone cancers like the adamantinomas, chordomas; giant tumours occurring in the knees etc. that also come under primary bone cancer. These are very rare in their occurrence considering other types of primary cancers.
Metastases or the secondary bone cancer:
As mentioned earlier the bones are the tissues where the cancer start from, it’s mostly the spread of cancerous cells from other tissues that affect the bones. This type of cancer spread to bones is considered secondary type of bone cancer or metastases. This type of infection is more common than the primary type of cancers. The other types of cancers like the kidney cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer etc are the most probable ones to affect the bones especially of hips and the longer bones of the limbs.
The resources for knowing about all types of cancers are available for perusal online through the cancer.gov site where all the facts about the cancers can be obtained. As with every other disease, it’s best to have the bone cancer diagnosed earlier so that we can have the best chance of treating the cancer.
