How Does Bone Cancer Start?
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Primary Bone Cancer
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Primary bone cancer is relatively rare. According to the Mayo Clinic, less than 2,500 new cases of primary bone cancer are diagnosed each year. Of these cases, the majority will be children, largely because this form of cancer occurs in growing bone tissue or cartilage, which is seen in youth more than in adults. Scientists are still unaware how it starts. But, as with any form of cancer, there is something to be said about a person's genetics, meaning that bone cancer may have something to do with heredity. Though rare, some people are more predisposed to develop bone cancer than others.
Secondary Bone Cancer
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Characteristically, bone cancer starts as another form of cancer entirely, making it a metastatic cancer, or a cancer that has metastasized and spread to the bone. This is far more common than cancer that starts in the bone. That being said, it isn't technically bone cancer, since it is a cancer of wherever the abnormal cells originated. If someone were to have stomach cancer and it spread to his pelvic bone, it is still stomach cancer, though it may have metastasized to this area of the body, hence the term "metastatic bone cancer."
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Bone Marrow Cancer
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Bone marrow cancer, which would be seen in leukemia, shouldn't be confused with bone cancer. Much like secondary or metastatic bone cancer, they are two different forms of cancers. Bone marrow cancer affects the marrow or core of the bone, where your blood vessels come from. Bone cancer affects the skeleton. As with any cancer, bone marrow cancer will start off with an abnormal cell that multiplies at a higher rate than healthy cells. This doesn't mean that someone with cancer of the bone marrow will never have cancer of the bone; it simply means they are different diseases.
Symptoms
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When someone is suffering from bone cancer, he will more than likely experience some level of pain around the tumor. He may suffer from tenderness and swelling, breaks and fractures, fatigue and weight loss. People who have cancer of the bone will generally find that it has formed on either the bones of the arms or the bones of the legs, but can affect any bone in the body.
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