Bone Cancer Symptoms

Bone cancer has many possible symptoms associated with it. Symptoms of bone cancer can be in place for weeks, months or years before the condition is picked up.

   1. Pain: Pain is usually worse while a person is very active. This is usually noticeable when playing sports or running. Pain may also be noticed when at rest. Many people complain of bone pain while sleeping.

   2. Night Sweats: These occur while sleeping and the person wakes up covered in sweat. Many times the person doesn’t even know they are sweating until they wake up to find clothing and bedding soaking wet. Night sweats can also be caused by many other things such as hormone disorders, neurologic disorders, anemia etc so tests need to be conducted by the physician to rule any other conditions out.

   3. Lumps or masses: These can often be felt or seen where the cancer is. This mass or lump may be able to be moved a bit and may not even be painful.

   4. Bone breaks or fractures: This is a symptom that catches many off guard. A patient can be just standing in one place and have a fracture happen to the bone in the leg. The same thing is true for the patient that has bone cancer in the arm. Something as simple as throwing a ball may cause a fracture or break. Picking up something that may not seem that heavy can also cause the same result.

   5. Fever: Described as the body temperature being above 98.6F when taken orally or 100.4F when taken rectally. Though many use the oral method of getting a body temperature the rectal method is usually much more accurate. Other symptoms that go along with fevers are sweating, shivering, headache.

   6. Aching: There may also be aching of the muscles.

   7. Loss of appetite: This may also be present.

   8. Weight Loss: Weight loss for no apparent reason is something that needs to be checked by a physician right away. Unexplained weight loss can be caused by numerous things such as aging, anxiety, dieting depression and starvation, but can also be a symptom of serious disease.

If any of the above symptoms present themselves to a patient at any time medical advice should be sought immediately. As well as being symptoms of bone cancer they can also indicate other illnesses or diseases that may require medical attention.

When seeing a physician a thorough exam will be carried out. Blood tests will be ordered and diagnostic tests will be run. Some of the tests run that may be ordered could be:

   1. Cat Scan: This gives a cross section picture of your bones. It will let the physician know if there is a tumor located somewhere in the bone or on the outer surface of it.

   2. MRI: This will also give a cross section of the bones. The benefit of the MRI is it gives more detailed pictures. The tendons, nerves, ligaments and also blood vessels can be seen in great detail thus giving a better picture than the CAT scan.

Unfortunately with bone cancer, there may be no symptoms that present themselves at all and this is another reason why it is so important to have an annual medical where a trained eye can pick up on anything that may be out of order.

For further information continue to Bone Cancer Types