Bone Cancer Symptom Guide
Bone cancer is a disease where a cancerous tumor develops in or around a bone that destroys healthy bone tissue. Primary bone cancer begins in any cells of the bone itself, while secondary bone cancer starts elsewhere in the body and spreads to the bones. There are four stages of bone cancer. Stage one is cancer that has not spread beyond the bone. Stage two is more aggressive cancer but has not spread beyond the bone. Stage three is where there are two or more cancerous places within the same bone. Stage four means cancer has spread past bone tissues to other parts of the body. While there is no clear cause of bone cancer, there are factors that increase an individual's risk including young age, previous radiation therapy, Paget's disease, familial bone cancer history, hereditary retinoblastoma, and Li-Fraumeni syndrome. While bone cancer signs differ by the bones affected, most bone cancers have several symptoms in common.