Osteosarcoma-Research

Joey Ku

Osteosarcoma

A cancerous (malignant) bone tumor that occurs during rapid growth in adolescence There are two types to bone cancer: Primary Bone Cancer and Secondary Bone Cancer. Osteosarcoma can be mostly found in:

Shin (near the knee)

Thigh (near the knee) Upper arm (near the shoulder)

Osteosarcoma is a Primary Bone Cancer There are many other types of Primary Bone Cancer:

Chondrosarcoma
Ewing's sarcoma Spindle cell sarcoma Chordoma

Primary Bone Cancer begins when the cancer cells divides itself and begins to break down and destroy normal tissue of the bone, weakening it in process. Primary Bone Cancer can also spread itself and travel to other parts of the body, e.g. organs or to other bones where it can weaken and or grow secondary tumors.

The Causes

Osteosarcoma can be caused by:

An osteochondroma (a non cancerous tumor which can turn into chondrosarcoma, a cancer that is derived from transformed cells that produce cartilage Hereditary retinoblastoma (a rare childhood eye cancer) Inherited from families

Signs of Osteosarcoma and Treatment

Symptoms:
Pain Swelling of the infected area Difficulty in moving joints Pressure if the tumor that has grown from the bone presses onto nearby joints Fracture of the affected area

Treatment:
Surgery Chemotherapy

The basic cell cycle

Everything begins with cells, as old ones die they divide and create new ones in its place as part of development. The life of a cell begins when it is formed from a parent cell and divides itself and forms two daughter cells. These cells are genderless but words parent and daughter are used to describe a link from its predecessor to the next. As the cells divide, its DNA is copied onto the next set of cell generations. However with most cancerous cells, they divide themselves excessively and destroy tissues. Cancer cells may stop dividing at their own will without having to complete normal cell checks. The cancer cells then goes to the normal cell system and evades their checking system that can cause a cell to undergo the apoptosis procedure which if there is a problem that cell would be depleted.

In Depth

A cancer cell begins when the cell in a tissue goes under transformation from a normal cell to a cancer cell. The bodys immune system recognizes the cell as a threat to the body and instead destroys it. If the cancer cell avoids getting destroyed, it can grow and forma mass of abnormal cells within a normal tissue. If the abnormal cells stays in its place and only make a few changes to its genetic structure to survive, this would be known as a Benign tumor. Benign tumors normally wouldnt cause problems and could be removed by surgery. But if the abnormal cells change its cellular and genetic structure to enable them to spread and harm other tissues that would impair one or more parts of the body, organs or bones, this would be known as a Malignant tumor or a Malignant Neoplasm.

In Depth (continued)

Malignant tumors can cause the individual massive change effects such as loss of weight, vision impaired and others. The abnormal changes on the cell surface causes cancer cells to lose joints that are connected to other neighboring cells which then allows them to spread into nearby tissues. Cancer cells may also give out signals to cause blood vessels to grow towards the tumor. Some tumor cells may separate from the original, travelling through the blood vessels and to other parts of the body where it then may grow into another tumor. The spreading of cancer cells to other locations from their original locations is called Metastasis.

With Metastasis or the spreading of cancer to other parts of the body, this can also be known as Secondary Bone Cancer.

Sources Used

http://www.medicinenet.com/bone_cancer/pa ge1.htm http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/BoneCancer/D etailedGuide/index http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Cancerinformati on/Cancertypes/Bone/Symptomsdiagnosis/Gr adingstaging.aspx http://bcrt.org.uk/bci_what_is_osteosarcoma. php http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/P MH0002616/ http://www.cancer.net/patient/Cancer+Types/ Bone+Cancer/ci.Bone+Cancer.printer