Osteosarcoma
Osteosarcoma is the type most common bone cancer. It usually occurs in adolescent boys, in general, they begin to “catch lugs. Osteosarcoma affects twice as many boys than girls and often occurs in people higher than average. Some medical problems may be due to genes, such as retinoblastoma, a tumor that develops in the retina, may predispose some adolescents to develop osteosarcoma. The same happens if a teenager has received radiation treatments for other bone cancers.
The most common symptoms of osteosarcoma are pain and swelling of the legs or arms, sometimes accompanied by the appearance of a bulge. Some people suffer more pain at night or exercise. Often, osteosarcoma is found in bones surrounding the knee, but can also occur in other bones. In exceptional cases, a tumor can spread or cause outside the bone metastases in nerves and blood vessels of the limb. (The word metastasis is the term doctors use when tumor cells away from the original cancer site and move to different tissues or organs).
Treatment for osteosarcoma usually involves chemotherapy (medication intravenously, or IV, which destroys cancer cells) as well as surgery to remove the tumor. In a few cases in which these procedures fail to fully overcome the cancer, the doctor may need to amputate a part or all of the limb to fight cancer. Doctors can also perform surgery for limb salvage. In this procedure, bone is removed to prevent cancer and limb amputation by filling the space with a bone graft or a metal rod special.
The loss of a limb can be devastating, especially for teens who are already through other bodily changes. The psychological and physical therapy (also called “physical rehabilitation) can be very useful in this situation. In general, adolescents who are receiving amputation must pursue a prosthesis or artificial limb, to help them adapt. Most adolescents are able to return to normal activities, including sports.
Most of the adolescents develop side effects such as hair loss, bleeding, infection and heart problems or skin, characteristic of the drugs used in chemotherapy treatment for osteosarcoma. Chemotherapy can also increase a patient’s risk of developing other cancers in the future. The good news is that most teens with osteosarcoma do recover.
Tags: Bone cancer, cancer, Hair loss, Heart, Osteosarcoma, Physical therapy, Skin, Tumor,