Bone Cancer

Pain in any part of the body can be discomforting. Doctor would normally advise you to get yourself diagnosed in case of any pain. Most of the bone pains are muscular or may be related to certain vitamin deficiencies. In some cases this pain especially in bones can be warning sign of some major issue.
Bone cancer is one of the diagnosis in cases where there is swelling, tenderness and pain in any bone. Bone cancer is seen mostly in long bones. Classic symptoms of bone cancer are swelling in joint / bone accompanied with pain which increases during the night. Bone tumours can be either cancerous or non cancerous. Cancerous bone tumours are called bone cancer. However, any benign or non cancerous bone tumour can become malignant over the period of time. The best a person with bone tumour can do is not to ignore it, instead get the best treatment for the same. Bone cancers or bone tumours can be either primary or secondary. Primary tumours are those which have originated at the site whereas secondary bone tumours are those which have grown as a result of cancer in some other organ. Medically we call them metastatic bone tumours.

Types of Bone Cancer

There can be different types of non cancerous or benign bone tumours like:
Osteoma
Osteochondroma
Aneurismal bone cyst
Enchondroma

Similar to beingn tumours there can be various types of cancerous tumours as well:

Osteosarcoma
Chondrosarcoma
Ewing’s Sarcoma
Fibrosarcoma

Symptoms

Some of the most common symptoms of bone tumours include:
Dull pain in the affected area
Swelling
Tenderness
Intensity of pain increases in night
Unintended Weight loss
Fatigue
Feeling of lack of strength in the affected limb

Diagnosis & Treatments

Diagnosis of a bone tumour can be done through a X-ray of the affected joint or bone. An x-ray is the first level of diagnosis which can be followed by a MRI scan to understand the nature and vascularity of the tumour. In certain cases to understand whether a tumour is cancerous or benign the bone cancer specialist or surgeon may take a small tissue from the tumour and send it for investigation. The result of biopsy gives bone cancer surgeon a clear diagnosis whether the tumour is cancer or not. In case it comes out to be cancer then the next step is to do the staging of the cancer. The gold standard for cancer staging in India is a PET CT Scan of whole body.

The best line of treatment in case of early stage bone cancer is surgery. Surgery for bone cancer tumour is aimed at removing the tumour and fixing the bone. The surgery for the bone tumour removal is done to have a wide margin clearance which ensures that the surgeon does not leave any cancerous tissue. Dr J S Virk mostly does fixation using plate and nails. However the main aim of Dr Virk is to save the limb by using various techniques like:

ECRT (Extra Corporeal Radiation Therapy) –ECRT (Extra Corporeal Radiation Therapy) – Through this treatment the bone cancer surgeon would remove the affected bone and send it for high dose radiation therapy.  The benefit of this treatment is that the high dose radiation that is given only impacts the affected bone and not other parts of body. High dose radiation to the bone ensures that the cancer cells are radiated and killed.
Cryotherapy –In this treatment liquid nitrogen is used to kill the cancer cells in the affected bone. This is done in the same sitting as the surgery. The impacted bone is removed and put in the liquid nitrogen to kill the cancer cells. After this process the natural bone is fixed using the implants.
Reconstructive surgery using implants –There are cases where the above options are not available to the surgeon. In those cases a reconstruction of the bone and muscles is done using an imported implant which improves the function of the limb. The implant used in the reconstruction of the bone cancer are special implant and are mostly customized as per the requirement of the patient.

Chemotherapy or radiation therapy may also form the part of complete treatment apart from surgery. The decision of giving chemo or radiation therapy depends upon the staging of the cancer and type of cancer. In primary bone cancer patients treated by Dr J S Virk the 5 years survival rate is approximately 80-90%. This means that patients treated for bone cancer survive for 5 or more than years after the treatment.