Osteosarcoma Symptoms and Signs
Osteosarcoma symptoms and signs often consist of a Persistent pain that becomes worst day by day, despite the patient takes pain killers. However, the symptoms are not obvious to define the cancer. They usually come in the form of abnormal sensation or pain in the diseased limb when the individual is at rest or at night, and may have been occurring for some time. This pain, strong and well localized, is accentuated by pressure on the bone.
Inflammation of a tendon (tendinitis, also called tendonitis) in the elbow that does not heal can be a case of osteosarcoma of the humerus. In extreme cases, Osteosarcoma is found during a spontaneous fracture of the bone. In this case the tumor has already damaged virtually all of the bone structures, making survival less likely. But these advanced cases often associated with, pain, swelling, decreased joint motion.
Osteosarcoma Diagnosis
An X-ray can allow the health care provider to detect the tumor. But to accurately confirm the diagnosis, a biopsy will be performed to take small sample of the affected tissue in order to carry out the histological examination (examination of the tissue or cells under a microscope) of the tumor. Additional tests such as imaging techniques can also be included to search for metastases, mainly in the lungs.
Osteosarcoma Treatment
Osteosarcoma Treatment is often a combination of chemotherapy, mainly API–AI regimen, associated with surgical removal of the tumor and the use of a possible prosthesis fitting to replace the removed bone. But to decide the treatment several factors, such as the extent, location, and grade of the cancer will be considered. The person’s age and overall health of the patient will also be taken into consideration.
Chemotherapy (use of anticancer drugs) associated with the surgical removal of all the tissue affected by the tumor are the basics of effective treatment of osteosarcoma. The difficulty lies in the fact to keep most of the affected limb (arm or leg) to facilitate the installation of the prosthesis. In few cases amputation is necessary. It is reserved for recurrent or high-volume osteosarcoma cases with possible recurrences.
Osteosarcoma Prognosis
With the advances in cancer field, osteosarcoma has a much better prognosis than a few years ago.Depending on the early detection of the tumor and its grade and metastatic state,osteosarcoma prognosis for recovery is greater than 70% if the disease is diagnosed early. This is due to great improvement in recent decades. But, unfortunately, in an aggressive osteosarcoma with metastases to other organs, such as the lungs, death usually occurs within two years.