Bone cancer affects children each year, with osteogenic sarcoma, also called osteosarcoma, being the most common type, comprising 75 percent of primary cases, according to Stanford Medicine Cancer Center. Osteosarcoma accounts for around 5 percent of all new childhood cancers each year, with Ewing's sarcoma, the second most common type of bone cancer in children, accounting for around 3 percent.
Childhood bone cancer more often occurs as a metastasis, or spread, from another cancer than as a primary cancer. Symptoms of bone cancer may vary depending on the location.
Bone Symptoms
Pain in the affected area is the initial symptom of childhood bone cancer. Osteosarcoma most often occurs in the long bones around the knee, but can affect the upper leg, shoulder, thigh, upper arm bone, pelvis or skull. Ewing's sarcoma most often occurs in the thigh, arms and leg bones. Swelling, tenderness and redness may occur around the affected area of bone, and the child may limp or have decreased mobility in the bone.
Since adolescents most commonly develop bone cancers, and adolescents are often active in sports, injuries that cause bone pain are not uncommon. However, if pain worsens at night or with increased activity or interferes with activity, medical evaluation is necessary. If the cancer affects the bones around the knee, the knee may feel stiff, Stanford University explains. If the tumor weakens the bone, a pathological fracture may occur, where the bone fractures, or breaks, spontaneously, after a minor injury.
Osteosarcoma treatment may consist of chemotherapy to shrink the tumor followed by surgery to remove the tumor, and then additional chemotherapy to kill whatever tumor cells still exist. It's often possible to remove just part of the bone rather than doing a complete or partial amputation of the limb, Comer Children's Hospital reports. Ewing's sarcoma may be treated with chemotherapy, surgery and/or radiation.
Systemic Symptoms
Systemic symptoms of Ewing's sarcoma include fever, fatigue, decreased appetite and weight loss. Around 50 percent of patients also have an increased sedimentation rate, a sign of inflammation, lead author Meredith Lahl reports in a 2008 article published in "Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing."
Other Symptoms
Ewing's sarcoma can cause nerve compression, leading to numbness and tingling, depending on the tumor location. While vertebral tumors comprise less than 5 percent of Ewing's sarcoma tumors, lead author A.S. Goktepe of the Gulhane Military Medical Academy reports in the July 2002 issue of "Spinal Cord" that a spinal tumor may cause paralysis or incontinence.
