WHAT IS A SECONDARY BONE CANCER? WHEN A CANCER CAUSE ANOTHER CANCER

The bone cancers represent malignancies developing within thebone. It differentiates between primary cancers of bone, developed from bone cells, the secondary bone cancer who are in fact metastases from another cancer in another part of the body.

Bone cancer may result from bone metastases of other cancers

The secondary bone cancer are actually bone metastases from cancer of another organ, such as a cancer of the prostate, thyroid, breast, kidney, lung, etc.. In other words, they are localized cancer that eventually spread to invade the bone, destroying it bit by bit. The metastases can reach any bones but they generally do not exceed the elbows and knees.

This type of bone cancer, known to the bone metastases is called a secondary bone cancer.

Secondary bone cancer bone pain and fractures

The bone metastases are suspected in cases of bone pain, sometimes very intense. It can sometimes perceive the presence of a nodule. Cancer cells have the characteristic of weakening the bone, the other most common symptom of bone cancer is the occurrence of spontaneous fractures, that is to say in the presence of a minor shock, or even of any trauma.
Attention, sometimes a bone metastasis causes symptoms even before the cancer is detected remote.

The diagnosis of secondary bone cancer

Thus, any unexplained persistent pain should lead to the achievement of a radiograph. It is rarely sufficient to indicate the type of tumor and must be supplemented by a bone scan (radioactive iodine injection), a scanner or an MRI.The diagnosis requires a biopsy then puncture the tumor. Indeed, only the analysis of cells that make up the suspect area reveals the presence of tumor cells. (Note that the biopsy can provide information on the type of tissue behind the tumor distant.)

Treatments depend on the origin of cancer Remote

Treatment depends on the type of cancer at the origin of metastases. We may use chemotherapy, radiotherapy or hormone therapy when it is a cancer of the prostate or breast cancer, two hormone-dependent cancers.
One can resort to surgery in some cases, for example to remove a bone metastasis localized when the primary cancer was removed. Bone surgery may also help stabilize the bone in cases of high risk of fracture.
The treatment here is therefore a case by case basis.