What is bone cancer? Symptoms could be mistaken for THIS common condition

Most cases of bone cancer develop in the long bones of the legs or upper arms which can cause symptoms of the disease to be mistaken for arthritis.

The most common symptoms of the disease is a persistent pain which gets worse over time, and like arthritis, can get worse at night.

Other symptoms of bone cancer can include swelling and redness over a bone which can make movement challenging.

This could also be mistaken for gout, an uncomfortable, inflammatory condition that occurs when needle-like crystals of uric acid form within certain joints or soft tissues.

Macmillan Cancer Support said another signs of the disease could be difficulty moving a joint.

It said: “If the cancer is near a joint, this can make it more difficult to move the joint. It can affect the movement of the whole limb.

“If the affected bone is in the leg, it may cause a limp. If the tumour is in the spine, it may press on nerves, causing weakness or numbness and tingling in the limbs.”

Other symptoms include a high temperature and unexplained weight loss.

Osteosarcoma is the most common form of primary bone cancer in children and young adults, usually affecting people aged 10 to 24 years.

However, there has not been a new treatment for osteosarcoma in almost 40 years, in spite of extensive research.

More than 160 new patients are diagnosed with osteosarcoma in the UK each year, of which around one third cannot be cured.

The current treatment for osteosarcoma is chemotherapy followed by surgery, where the bone tumours are removed.

Now experts have revealed a subgroup of patients with osteosarcoma could be helped by an existing drug, scientists from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and their collaborators at University College London Cancer Institute and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust have suggested.

In the largest genetic sequencing study of osteosarcoma to date, scientists discovered that 10 per cent of patients with a genetic mutation, in particular growth factor signalling genes may benefit from existing drugs, known as IGF1R inhibitors.

In the study, scientists analysed the genome of 112 childhood and adult tumours – double the number of tumours studied previously.

Dr Sam Behjati, first author from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and University of Cambridge, said: “Osteosarcoma is difficult to treat.

“Despite extensive research over the past 40 years, no new treatment options have been found.

“In this study we reveal a clear biological target for osteosarcoma that can be reached with existing drugs.”

Professor Adrienne Flanagan, senior author from the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust and University College London Cancer Institute, said: “By sequencing the whole genome of the tumours, we have unpicked the mechanism behind osteosarcoma for the first time.

Dr Peter Campbell, lead author from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, said: “Currently, there are no new osteosarcoma treatments on the horizon.

“Genomic sequencing has provided the evidence needed to revisit clinical trials of IGF1R inhibitors for the subset of patients that responded in the past.

“The mutations of patients’ tumours may enable clinicians to predict who will, and will not respond to these drugs, resulting in more efficient clinical trials.

“The drugs could be effective for 10 per cent of osteosarcoma patients.”