Do you know the main symptoms of bone cancer? Most often in the form of metastases from other cancers (breast, kidney, prostate, thyroid or lung cancers), bone cancers can also be primary, i.e. they originate in bone or cartilage cells.
In France, these cancers represent only 0.5 to 1% of new cases of cancer according to the Foundation for Medical Research (FRM), i.e. about 300 cases.
What are the most common forms of bone cancer?
- I’osteosarcoma : it represents 50% of cases, and occurs most often in adolescent boys and young adults, with a peak around 18 years of age;
- THE Ewing’s sarcoma : it also most often affects adolescents, with a peak around 15 years of age. Very aggressive, it often forms metastases;
- THE chondrosarcoma : Occurring rather in adults after 30 years, it is characterized by a proliferation of malignant cartilage cells.
Risk factors (too) poorly known
Sometimes bone cancer develops in people who have no risk factors. Here are the known ones:
- Exposure to radiation (radiotherapy, ionizing rays, radium, etc.): cancer can appear 5 to 20 years later;
- Bone conditions, including Paget’s disease of bone, fibrous dysplasia or osteogenesis;
- Certain inherited genetic disorders: Li-Fraumeni syndrome, Werner syndrome, Bloom syndrome.
However, some are still poorly understood. “Age of onset and location on long bones (humerus, ulna, radius for the arm, femur, tibia or fibula for the leg, editor’s note) suggest that there is a link between this rapid growth and tumor development“, indicates the FRM.
What life expectancy? On average, the 5-year survival rate for patients diagnosed between 0 and 14 years of age is approximately 75%.
Source :
- All about bone cancer, Foundation for Medical Research
