Knee cancer: causes, symptoms and treatments

2023-09-19 14:27:00

Particularly aggressive, osteosarcomas are among the most widespread primary cancerous bone tumors. Osteosarcoma requires chemotherapy and intervention chirurgicale.

What is osteosarcoma?

Yes the spaknee cancer‘ is widely used, in reality, we rather speak ofosteosarcoma to evoke a type of bone cancer bringing together all bone and knee cancers. it’s regarding the most common malignant bone tumor. Very aggressive, it carries a great risk of metastases, that is to say that the cells of the primary tumor can migrate to other parts of the body… and be the cause of secondary cancers.

Tumors that start in the bone can develop in different parts of the skeleton. However, most often, they are located at the ends of the bones near the joints. Most frequently osteosarcomas are located at the knee level (50% of cases1), either at the lower end of the femur or at the upper end of the tibia., but we can also find them at the ends of the hip bones (15% of cases), shoulders (15% of cases), pelvis and vertebrae (10% of cases) or the head (jaw and skull)(less than 5% of cases)… There are 4 stages to classify the spread of bone cancer in the body.

Knee cancer: causes and origins

We do not yet know exactly everything regarding the causes and origins of bone tissue cancer. However, we have still identified certain factors that can promote the development of osteosarcoma:

  • A specific eye cancer, bilateral retinoblastoma,
  • A bone pathology: Paget’s disease
  • A rare condition predisposing to different types of tumors: Li-Fraumeni syndrome

Concretely, in people suffering from osteosarcoma, there is a failure which causes the osteoblasts – responsible for the production of bone tissue – to become tumorous and divide in an uncontrolled manner without the osteoclasts – responsible for the destruction of bone tissue – fail to compensate for this proliferation. Result ? A tumor forms.

What are the symptoms of knee cancer

  • Bone pain,
  • Swelling, taking the form of a palpable mass, localized in the affected tissues,
  • Fracture linked to bone fragility

Knee cancer, who is affected?

Although it is one of the most common primary bone cancers, osteosarcoma remains a rare disease. Each year, 3 million cases are recorded each year internationally and 80 to 100 cases in France2 – or less than 1% of cancers diagnosed in France -.

Osteosarcoma mainly affects children, adolescents and young adults. Tumors are generally seen in young people aged 10 to 202 with a prevalence in males. Even if it is rarer, osteosarcoma can also affect older people and appear at 60 years and over.

Knee cancer screening and treatments

If the patient suffers from one of the pathologies mentioned above, the medical profession may suspect osteosarcoma. Medical imaging tests (CT scan, MRI, X-ray) as well as a biopsy can confirm the diagnosis. Early diagnosis promotes the effectiveness of treatment and limits the risk of complications. Caught early, before it metastasizes, this type of cancer has a cure rate of 70%. When it occurs in people aged 60 and over, osteosarcoma generally metastasizes andlife expectancy is significantly reduced.

Once diagnosed, osteosarcoma being particularly aggressive, it requires adequate and fairly heavy treatment in order to prevent metastases from spreading:

  • Chemotherapy – as in the treatment of many other cancers – will first help fight once morest the spread of cancer cells,
  • The surgical intervention then makes it possible to remove all the tumor,
  • Post-operative chemotherapy then reduces the risk of relapse,

Still subject to numerous studies, immunotherapy, designed to stimulate the body’s immune defenses to combat the development of cancer cells, might prove very interesting in the treatment of osteosarcoma.

1. According to the Sarcoma info site.

2. 60% occur in adolescents aged 10 to 20, according to figures from the Curie Institute.

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