Bone cancer pain

Bone Cancer-Overview

Cancer is a disease in which the cells in one part of the body become abnormal and start to grow out of control. These cells, if not treated, may spread to other parts of the body. This is called a metastasis and that type of cancer a metastatic cancer.

Bone cancer is a type of a cancer that begins in the bone. However, this is very rare and it happens more often that the cancer has metastasized to the bone from another part of the body.

There are three types of bone cancer. These include: osteosarcoma (this type begins in the bones and occurs most often in children and young adults), chondosarcoma (it begins in the cartilage and usually affects older adults), and Ewing’s sarcoma (it is not clear where in the bone this type starts, and it most often affects children and young adults).

The most common symptoms of bone cancer are pain in the bones, swelling, tenderness, weight loss, fatigue, and frequent fractures (which is caused by weakened bones), etc.

The treatment of bone cancer includes surgery (either to remove the limb affected, or the bone, or just the tumor), chemotherapy and radiation therapy. It is very hard to predict whether a person will fully recover from this illness. Cancer is still one of the hardest illnesses known to mankind.

Bone Cancer Pain

This type of cancer is known to sometimes be very painful. It upsets normal bone cell activity that is intended to help keep bones strong. This disturbance can cause a bone to become either too brittle or too thick and overdeveloped.

There are various ways of treating pain that is caused by this illness. It involves medication, radiation therapy and a new method called cryoablation.When it comes to medication, the doctor might prescribe various medicines, depending on the severity of the pain. If it is described as mild, he might prescribe ibuprofen, nonsteroidal drugs, acetaminophen, etc. If the pain is moderate to severe, the medicine prescribed might be opoids.

However, all these drugs are known to have various side-effects, and can be highly addictive, so some doctors are reluctant to prescribe them in the long run.

Radiation therapy is used sometimes to shrink the tumor, thus causing the pain to subside. However, this type of treatment can also have serious side effects.

There is also a new, experimental treatment called cryoablation, in which the doctors, through a small probe, place ice on the cancerous cells, and in that way relieve the pain.