Bone Cancer Prognosis

Not only the treatment but the response of the patient to the treatment also determines the prognosis of cancer. Bone cancer prognosis tells you about the likely course and outcome of the bone cancer but it is just a prediction and no one can be absolutely certain about the outcome for a particular patient. Biopsy helps determine the grade of the tumor and doctors can predict how likely it is to spread.

Types of Bone Cancer

The prognosis can be different for different types of bone cancer, for example, osteosarcoma, normally occurring in long bones of arms and legs or chondrosarcoma which develops in the cartilage cells. Ewing's sarcoma, malignant fibrous histiocytoma, Fibrosarcoma, Chordoma, bone marrow cancer, are some of the other types of bone cancer. Taking into consideration so many types of bone cancer, it's very hard to predict overall survival rates for bone cancer in general. Different types of bone cancer are treated differently and patients respond better to certain types of treatment.

Factors that Influence the Prognosis of Bone Cancer

• Type, size and location of the cancer.
• How long the patient has had the symptoms like bone pain, fever, weight loss etc.
• Stage of the bone cancer when diagnosed, from which, how far the cancer has spread can be known.
• Age, overall health and mental stability of the patient.
• How much cancer can be removed by surgery
• How much cancer can be killed by chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
• How the patient responds to the treatment.
• How the patient follows lifestyle changes expected

The prognosis can be unfavorable if it is difficult to control the growth of the cancer. It is favorable if the cancer is likely to respond well to the treatment. Researchers collect information from thousands of bone cancer patients over a number of years and study the information, sorting it into groups of people, whose situations are most similar. Doctors use these statistics to determine the bone cancer prognosis. Bone cancer survival rate indicates the percentage of people (diagnosed with a certain type and stage of bone cancer) who survive the disease for a specific period of time (usually five years) after the diagnosis. To generalize the estimates, statistics refer to the 5-year survival rate. The 5-year survival rate tells you about the percentage of people who are alive 5 years after diagnosis. These alive patients may be having few or no signs of cancer, may be free of disease, or may be undergoing the treatment. No one should use these survival rates to predict the life span of a particular patient, as they are based on large groups of people. You can not directly compare one patient with another as no two patients are exactly alike.

Bone Cancer in Children

Osteosarcoma and Ewing's sarcoma are the commonly found malignancies of bone tissues in children. 85% of the patients can expect a five year event free survival, after the surgical removal of low-grade tumors. Both surgery and chemotherapy are opted for the intermediate grade tumors. High grade tumors need aggressive chemotherapy. It is a fact that 75% of these patients expect a five year survival. Radiation therapy is not recommended for osteosarcomas. A few years back, the 5-year survival rate for white children, belonging to the age group 'less than 15-years old', with bone and joint cancer, was 60% in the US. With the availability of advanced technology and equipment, these rates are found improving these days.

Metastatic Bone Cancer

Cancer which starts in the bone tissue itself is called primary bone cancer and the cancer which spreads into the bones from other cancerous organs of the body is called metastatic bone cancer. In stage 1, low-grade tumors in the bone are noticed. In stage 2, high grade tumors which still are confined to primary site and have not spread outside the bone are noticed. During the third stage, low or high grade cancers in multiple places in the same bone can be noticed. When the cancer spreads outside the bone, to other organs, it is known as metastasized or stage 4 bone cancer. Prognosis of stage 4 bone cancer would be unfavorable as the bone cancer survival rate for this stage is very low. The following table will make the point clear.

Cancer Detection Stage	Percentage of People Survived	Total Number of Cases
Localized (confined to primary site)	85%	41%
Regional (beyond the primary site, towards regional lymph nodes)	70%	36%
Distant (metastasized)	31%	15%
Unstaged (information of stage not known)	63%	8%

The determination and attitude of the patient right from the moment of diagnosis and throughout the treatment can challenge the prevalent statistics related to bone cancer prognosis. Strong positive attitude of the patient helps increase the life expectancy of the patient.