Friday, 27 January 2012

Different Ways to Treat Bone Cancer

Bone cancer is mainly because of problematic bone cells. It is most common in children and adolescents. Bone cancer is of a primary and secondary nature. In case of a secondary cancer, you need to identify the origination of cancer and then find out the respective cancer treatment. However, we can have a look at the treatments for a primary bone cancer. While deciding on the treatment for bone cancer, the type of cancer, its stage, age and the overall health of the patient is taken into consideration.

Let’s have a look at the main treatments for a bone cancer:

1. Surgery: Surgery is a commonly used method for treating bone cancer. The type of surgery usually depends on the size of cancer, the area affected and if it has affected the surrounding tissues. The idea behind surgery is to remove the tumor completely and the surrounding tissue. After the surgery, it is important to examine if the tumor is removed completely because if a part of the tumor is left out, it will continue to spreading thus requiring a further treatment. Earlier amputations were done to remove the tumor, however with the improved techniques wherein the tumor can be removed with a rim of the bone, the need for amputations is less. Depending on the size of bone removed a replacement is done either with bone cement or bone graft or the bone bank or metal implants.

2. Chemotherapy: This is used to stop the growth of cancerous cells. This is either done before surgery to ease the surgery by shrinking the tumor or after surgery to kills the left out cancer cells.

3. Radiotherapy: Radiotherapy is usually the use of high radiations to kill the cancer cells. This is done on a regular basis in small doses for a period ranging from days to months, depending on the type of cancer. Even this can be used post and prior to surgery.

The combination of treatment vary depending on the type of cancer and its severity.

Read more on Ways to treat bone cancer.

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