What are the common symptoms of osteosarcoma

Osteosarcoma is still a disease with a very high mortality rate among adolescents and children. However, if it is detected and treated in time, the survival rate of osteosarcoma can be greatly improved. Therefore, once any symptoms of osteosarcoma are found, it should be checked and treated in time to avoid delaying the best treatment period. So let us first understand what are the general symptoms of osteosarcoma?

Pain is an early symptom and may occur before the tumor appears. It is intermittent pain at first, and gradually turns into continuous severe pain, especially at night. Pain in large malignant osteosarcoma occurs earlier and is more severe, often with a history of local trauma. The tumor near the bone end is large, with varying hardness, tenderness, high local temperature, dilated veins, and sometimes pulsation can be felt, and there may be pathological fractures. The overall health gradually declines to failure, and most patients have lung metastasis within a year.

X-ray film manifestations: Bone density is different. There is irregular destruction, blurred surface, unclear boundaries, and lesions mostly start from the epiphyseal end. Due to tumor growth and periosteal reaction, Kauderman's triangle is formed, and there are radial bone needles perpendicular to the bone shaft.

Clinically, adolescents with pain and swelling near the knee joint should be carefully examined. Most cases can be diagnosed based on medical history, physical signs and X-ray findings, and a biopsy should be performed if necessary. Attention should be paid to distinguishing from the following lesions: myositis ossificans, tuberculous osteitis of the metacarpals and metatarsal bones (osteosarcoma rarely occurs here), chronic osteomyelitis, bone cysts and giant cell tumors.

Clinically, it often occurs in the mandible of adolescents, less in the maxilla, and is often accompanied by a history of injury. The early symptoms are intermittent numbness and pain in the affected area, which then turns into persistent severe pain accompanied by reflex pain; the tumor grows rapidly, destroying the alveolar process and jawbone, causing loose teeth and facial deformity, and pathological fractures may also occur; on X-rays, it appears as irregular destruction, and those that expand from the inside to the outside are osteolytic; those that destroy the cortical bone and replace it with hyperplastic bone arranged in a solar radiation pattern are osteoblastic. Clinically, mixed late-stage patients with both of the above manifestations may have elevated serum calcium-alkaline phosphatase. Tumors are prone to metastasize to the lungs along the blood vessels.

Now that we know the general symptoms of osteosarcoma, we should always pay attention to the growth of teenagers and children, and seek diagnosis and treatment in time if symptoms occur. I hope my answer is helpful to you, and I wish you good health.