What are bone tumors?
Bone tumors are growths of new bone tissue that develop by progressive multiplication of bone cells.
There are two main groups of bone tumors:
- Bone tumors that arise in the bone, which can be benign or malignant, depending on their tendency to progress or to stabilize.
- Benign tumors are formed by normal tissue cells, their growth is slow and they do not invade neighboring structures.
- Malignant tumors are formed by cells different from those of normal tissue, grow rapidly, invade neighboring structures and can reproduce at a distance by metastasis.
- Bone tumors originate in other organs and spread to the bone, which is known as bone metastasis.
Although they are more frequent in the legs, they can affect any bone, and there are different types.
What are the symptoms?
As far as symptoms are concerned, pain may be mild and localized. When symptoms such as weight loss, asthenia or fever appear, the existence of a malignant tumor should be considered.
Patients with advanced Ewing’s sarcoma may also present with fever and general malaise.
What are the causes of bone tumor formation?
The cause of these tumors is the massive and disorganized growth of cells. Therefore, knowing the causes of this growth can help us to detect the problem. Today, much progress has been made in identifying the origin of the tumor and we can determine the role of toxins, genetic alterations, viruses and other factors, but there is still a long way to go. Ultimately, the cause of bone tumor formation is unknown. They often occur in areas of bone that grow rapidly. Possible causes include:
- Inherited genetic abnormalities
- Radiation
- Injury
In most cases, no specific cause is found.
Can it be prevented?
So far it is not known how the appearance of tumors, especially in childhood, can be prevented. The factors that may favor their appearance are not known, nor have they been found to be associated with other diseases.
What does the treatment consist of?
The treatment of bone tumors should be adapted to the type of severity they present, although surgery is the main treatment in most tumors and can be accompanied by chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Benign bone tumors are treated surgically by removal. In some cases, no intervention is performed and periodic check-ups are simply carried out to document that the tumor remains stable and does not grow.
Malignant bone tumors and metastases must be treated by a coordinated team of specialists: the oncologist, the radiotherapist, the pain specialist and, logically, the orthopedist/traumatologist.