Bone Cancer: An Introduction
Bone cancer is a disease in which cancer cells form in the tissues of the bone.
Bone Cancer: Understanding Bones
Mature bones are made up of three types of tissue:
- Compact tissue (the hard outer portion of most bones)
- Cancellous tissue (spongy tissue inside the bones that contains bone marrow, which makes blood cells)
- Subchondral tissue (smooth bone tissue of the joints).
A layer of cartilage covers subchondral tissue to cushion the movement of the joints.
The role of the bones is to:
- Support and protect internal organs
- Act as levers and braces for muscles to produce movement
- Produce and store blood cells in the bone marrow.
Understanding Bone Tumors and Bone Cancer
Bone tumors may be benign (noncancerous) or malignant (cancerous). Benign bone tumors are more common than malignant bone tumors. Although both types of tumors may grow and compress healthy bone tissue and absorb or replace it with abnormal tissue, benign tumors do not spread (metastasize) and are rarely life threatening.
Bone cancer that arises in the bone (primary bone cancer) is different from cancer that spreads to the bone from another part of the body (secondary bone cancer). Examples of secondary cancers that commonly spread to the bone are:
Add this article to your Favorites
Email this article
Print