Eight Early Warning Signs of Bone Cancer

  Bone and joint pain, bony masses and movement disorders are considered as the three main symptoms of bone tumors, especially bone cancer, but many bone cancers do not have typical clinical symptoms in early stages, and the clinical manifestations of bone tumors are not specific in many cases. Symptoms of early bone tumors are sometimes not obvious, and they are often not noticed until they develop to a certain extent, when local swelling or pain or pressure is present, or even until pathological fractures occur before they are detected in terms of diagnosis. Bone tumors can occur at any age, but within a specific age, there is often a tendency to develop certain tumors. For example, neuroblastoma involving the skeleton is common in infants, Ewing’s tumor in adolescents, giant cell tumor and osteosarcoma in adults, and myeloma and metastases in the elderly.  Early bone tumors have few systemic symptoms, but later on, if there is pain, it may affect appetite, emaciation and anemia. Malignant transformation occurs as ulceration, which can intercept infection and lead to malignant body. Those with rapid growth, such as Ewing’s tumor, may be accompanied by fever and increased white blood cell count, resembling osteomyelitis.  8 warning lights of early stage of bone cancer 1. A hard lump will appear on the surface of the bone, with some painful and some painless sensation.  2.Pain and swelling of bone and adjacent joints will appear, often aggravated at night, and the severity of pain is not related to activities, and the nature of pain is various, such as dull pain, stabbing pain, pulling pain, etc.  3.The body will have fever, weight loss, easy fatigue, weakness, mental lethargy and other manifestations.  4.Some patients will have persistent back pain, and the cause of back pain is difficult to explain.  5.The distal extremities will have numbness, which is mostly caused by tumor compression of nerves.  6.It is easy to have pathological fracture or deformation. Patients mostly have one or more fractures without obvious cause, and they are often consulted for this reason.  7.Spontaneous fracture is also a common early symptom of bone cancer.  8.When middle-aged and elderly people have unexplained limb pain and low back pain, and there is a tendency of progressive aggravation, they should be alert to the possibility of metastatic bone tumor.