Medicine and Health
Bone cancer types
Primary bone cancers are a specific subtype of a group of cancers known as sarcomas. Sarcomas are cancers that start in bone, muscle, connective tissue, blood vessels or fat, and may be found anywhere in the body. Types of bone cancers include:
- Osteosarcoma, also called osteogenic sarcoma, which is the most common type of bone sarcoma and typically starts in bone cells in the arms, legs or pelvis, usually affecting people between the ages of 10 and 30
- Chondrosarcoma, which forms in cartilage cells and rarely occurs in people under the age of 20
- Ewing tumor, also called Ewing’s sarcoma, which most frequently occurs in children and teenagers
- Fibrosarcoma and malignant fibrous histiocytoma, which usually develops in the soft tissue around the bones and tends to occur in older adults
- Giant cell tumor, which also includes benign tumors (noncancerous) and usually occurs in the arms or legs of young adults and middle-aged adults
- Chordoma, which affects bones in the spine and the base of the skull and occurs most frequently in adults 30 or older, particularly men
- Metastatic bone cancer, which spreads to other parts of the body but is still considered bone cancer
Not all bone tumors are malignant. Benign bone tumors include osteoid osteoma, osteoblastoma, osteochondroma, enchondroma and chondromyxoid fibroma.
Bone cancer symptoms
Many bone cancer symptoms match common symptoms associated with arthritis, osteoporosis or injury. If you’re experiencing one or more of these symptoms, you should discuss them with your doctor in order to identify the cause.
Possible symptoms of bone cancer include:
- Bone pain
- Swelling (or a lump) in the area of the bone pain
- Fractures resulting from weakened bones
- Unintended weight loss and fatigue that accompanies bone pain
- Difficulty breathing, if the cancer has spread to other organs, such as the lungs
Diagnosing bone cancer
- Needle biopsy, performed with a local anesthetic to numb the injection area
- Surgical biopsy, typically performed under general anesthesia to remove a bone tissue sample (incisional biopsy) or a whole tumor (excisional biopsy)
- Radionuclide bone scan
- X-ray
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
- Computed tomography (CT) scan
- Positron emission tomography (PET) scan
Bone cancer treatment options
- Orthopedic oncology, such as soft tissue excisions or resections, hip and joint replacement, and reconstructive and palliative surgeries
- Cancer-removal surgeries
- Chemotherapy
- Radiation therapy
- Targeted therapy, which uses drugs that attach to proteins, receptors or gene mutations found only on specific types of cancer cells