Signs and symptoms of bone cancer

A bone cancer survival rate refers to the percentage of people who were reported still living after being diagnosed with the cancer about 5 yrs ago.

In reality, this type of cancer is very rare. In fact, it's so rare than it only consists of about 1% among all tumor cases. Bone tumors, unlike most other types of cancer tumors, are not all fatal or cancerous. Benign tumors are even more prevalent than malignant tumors, which may be a much more relieving news for many. Often times, cancer of the bone may also be a result of the metastasis of a cancer from another part of the body.

Primary bone cancer, which begins in the bone itself and not a result of other cancer's metastasis is quite rare and only constitutes less than one percent of all malignancies. This type of bone cancer is more common amongst men and even more in children or adolescents.

Cancer symptoms may depend upon different factors and the progression is not exactly as fast as some other cancers. Some of these factors are the location, the size and the type of tumor. Most common signs and symptoms of bone cancer are pain in bones and joints, problems with movement, inflammation of the bones and joints of affected part and easy susceptibility to developing fractures. Occasionally, the patient may also experience fever, fatigue, sweating and unexplained weight loss.

Remember this is very rare so if you have any of these symptoms, this is likely to be caused by another condition. It may work better if you always go to your doctor for proper diagnosis.

Prognosis
Since the development of modern chemotherapy, the patient prognosis has been improving quite significantly in many countries. However, the recovery period will always depend upon the real status of the cancer and the patient him/herself including whether the cancer has spread, the type of cancer, tumor size, location, general health of the individual and other individual factors.

If the tumor is very small and localized, the bone cancer survival rate at five years is about 90%. If the cancer has begun to spread, however, the rate of survival becomes poorer.

Overall, the bone cancer survival rate at five years is only 60 percent, and once the cancer reaches its metastasis stage, you can expect the prognosis to become worse.

The bone cancer survival rate listed below is based upon the type of bone cancers:
• Osteosarcoma - 84% at the early stages and 69% at the later stage.
• Ewing's Sarcoma - 3 year survival rate is around 65%.
• Chondrosarcoma - 5 year survival rate is around 30%.

There are still a lot of things you need to know about bone cancer survival rate. Know more by visiting Cancer Survival Rates.

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