Bone Cancer

Question: What are the signs of bone cancer in a dog? I have a Rottweiler and I know they are prone to bone cancer, so I'd like to know what the signs of it are. Thanks.

Answer: Many people as me what to look for to tell if their dogs have cancer. Well, I must confess it is a tough question since there are so many cancers, and they all can present a little differently. I thought I should give you a little summary of some of the biggies. First, statistically, cancer TENDS to affect older dogs. So, more lumps and bumps on a young dog are benign than cancerous. One hallmark of a cancer is it worsens over time. Cancers you can see usually get bigger. A growth that stays very small for years is not likely to be a true cancer. Again, this is on average and is not a guarantee. Some cancers are visible, while others are internal. The visible ones can be blackish (melanomas), purplish (hemangiosarcomas), fleshy, inflamed and red (histiocytomas), look like a non-healing open sore (squamous cell carcinomas), be firm, hard and deeply attached (fibrosarcomas), or have any appearance (mast cell tumor, the great imitator). The internal ones are invisible, so we have to look for overall signs in the dog. When they are far along, cancers usually cause weight loss (cancer cachexia) without an obvious external reason. They often will cause less appetite. Many times dog owners will tell me they think their dog got tired of his or her food. They can cause low energy, where the dog will just lay around a lot. Internal cancer signs also depend on where the cancer is happening. For example, a bone tumor (osteosarcoma) might cause a limp, or a bladder tumor (transitional cell carcinoma) might cause straining to urinate, blood in urine, or urinating small amounts frequently. A tumor found in the wall of the stomach might cause vomiting, and in the intestine, diarrhea. Some cancers cause internal bleeding, like hemangiosarcoma of the spleen. This bleeding causes sudden weakness and wobbly legs. A nasal tumor like a squamous cell carcinoma might cause discharge or bleeding from a nostril, or sneezing that won’t go away. Lung cancers (bronchial adenocarcima) or tumors of the heart can cause coughing. Lumps in the breast with discharge from teats could be mammary carcinomas. The good news is, not all of these signs point to cancer. Lots of other things can cause each and every one of these signs. The important thing to remember is to get it checked out by someone who knows what they are doing. If we are dealing with cancer, moving early is the way to go. Best to all,

Question: What are the odds of winning a battle against bone cancer? Someone very close to me has bone cancer, and I was wondering if it is really serious. Though all cancers are.

Answer: it depends on the type of bone cancer. The age of the person, where the bone cancer is, if it has spread to other tissues, and how advanced it was once it was discovered. The survival rate for many cancers is high. Mine was caught early and with amputation and Chemo the cancer went away and never came back. 16 years cancer free this April 20th. I had osteosarcoma just below the knee.

Question: What is the prognosis for bone cancer? How fast does it spread? Where does it usually spread first? How long does it take to see symptoms after getting the cancer? What is the usual mortality rate after diagnosis? My brother in law just told the family he has bone cancer and has weeks to live he won't tell much more won't tell anything more. Thank you to anyone who can help me to understand this apparently virulent cancer.

Answer: There is not pat answer. The actual cell that became cancerous plays a role as well as the type of defects in the cell that cause the cancer. The type of defects affect things like how fast the cell divides, and the cell type may indicate how well chemotherapy will work. Cells that are hard to kill, like lung cells, make for bad cancers.

Question: What do you think of Zometa infusions every month for bone Cancer treatment? I have bone cancer and am currently getting Zometa infusions every month for treatment. Some say that Zometa builds up in you bones and it is not necessary to get it every month. This treatment has been given for approx one (1) year.

Answer: The FDA and drug manufacturer both recommend treatments every 3-4 weeks for bone cancer, so it looks like you are receiving the recommended dosage. Patients monitored over several consecutive treatments showed increasd blood plasma concentrations that seem to plateau at roughly 15% higher than the plasma concentration if the drug did not build up. Increased concentrations of this magnitude are considered small.

Question: what causes bone cancer and what can i do to prevent it? what causes bone cancer and what can i do to prevent it?

Answer: We don’t know what causes any cancer and there is no way to prevent them.

Question: What techniques/strokes would you use to massage a client with bone cancer? I'm a massage therapist student and I need help with a report that I'm doing on bone cancer. I need to know what techniques/strokes or even what type of massage you would do for a client with bone cancer. I need to have a detailed session written out, but I don't know what to put. Help, please?!

Answer: Something that I learned in massage therapy school is that chemotherapy treatment really weakens the bones so especially if your client is undergoing chemo I would do a very gentle massage. Of course contact with the physician is a must before any treatment with this client and ongoing conversations are necessary. After looking at a few different bone cancer websites (google massage therapy and bone cancer) it seems that a lot of the massage that is used for bone cancer patients is to relieve the pain that they are experiencing and to help them relax...If I had a bone cancer patient our first session would include a great deal of conversations so that I could become more familiar with who they are and what their needs are. The first session might be half talk half massage, we would end the session with an evaluation of how the person is feeling and devise a plan for future sessions. Each additional session would still include talking but much less and more massage. I would stick to gentle, swedish type strokes. I would also only use organic ingredients with this client (as I do with all my clients), they do not need any extra stuff to combat! Have fun. http://www.naturamassage.com/

Question: How to cure secondary level bone cancer for a 68 years old patient? My mom suffers from Secondary level bone cancer. She was having pain in the beginning say for about 2 months. We left it as it is bcoz of her age factor generally pain comes. But now on investigation we found it is cancer. We are not able to find out the primary level. Any medicines that can cure cancer? Now if she gets pain we give proxyvan and omez. She also consumes Amilodipin for BP. She has been given Radiation for only 7 days and doctors informed that is the final treatment that they can offer. Please help me.

Answer: Has she had a PET scan to try and find the primary cancer? If she has bone cancer that has spread from an unknown primary cancer then this is not a good situation. She has been given the radiation for palliative pain control in her bones and not as a curative treatment. Make sure her pain is treated properly as it will probably increase over time. Perhaps it is time to contact hospice or make other preparations to take care of your mother. Here is a good webpage about cancer of unknown primary so that you can better ask questions about treatment options of your mother's Drs. Make sure you have realistic expectations because there is no reason to make her sick from chemotherapy if the treatment will not produce remission or extend life span. good luck http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic1463.htm

Question: Is there a link between Anklosing Spondylitis and Cancer? Can the symptoms for AS be similar to bone cancer? A close friend is waiting on results of an MRI scan which is going to take a long time, and although doctors believe she has spondylitis (not full blown ankylosing spondylitis, an offshoot of it) I think she is worried it may be bone cancer... Can anyone tell me if these 2 illnesses are obviously different or if the doctors are perhaps predicting the lesser of 2 evils so as not to worry her in the meantime?

Answer: Although they sound similar, they are different. Spondylitis indicates inflammation of the vertebrae. It is a term relating to "wear and tear" and is more common in older people. Ankylosing means fusing together and relates to an inflammatory condition which produces new bone and leads to fusion. The vigorous exercise therapy designed for people with AS might be harmful to those suffering from spondylosis. There is no proven link between cancer and AS. I add a link with a brief detail of this. With regard to your statement that the results of the MRI will take a long time, there is no valid reason for the delay except an administrative one. For example, the diagnosing radiologist being unavailable. Which begs the question, what happens to the diagnosis and report in an emergency MRI? http://www.nature.com/ ncprheum/journal/v2/n12/ full/ncprheum0325.html I add a link for AS, http://hcd2.bupa.co.uk/ fact_sheets/html/ankylosing_ Spondylitis.html And one for Spondylitis http://wiki.answers.com/ Q/What_is_spondylitis Hope this helps matador 89

Question: What is the prognosis for adenocarcinoma with bone cancer? I hope someone can help. Recently a close friend of mine who had beaten breast cancer(she had been cancer free for 5 years) was diagnosed with cancer of the outer lung and bone cancer. The doctors are telling her that they will be doing chemotherapy once a month only. There is another treatment (hormonal) that they want to try, but they're worried because she has not finished menopause. Can anyone tell me what the prognosis is when you have both of these cancers?

Answer: I dont want to alarm you. But my mother had breast cancer and it spread into her bones after being told 4 years earlier that she was cancer free. After her dignosis in May of 2003, sadly it took intill Dec of 2004 to kill her. She was only 49. They tried everything from chemo to radiation. They even had her on a hormone pill but the cancer had just spread so much. I am really sorry about your friend my heart goes out to her. I would find out what stage she is in. My mother was in stage four so there was really not much they could do. Through the treatments they provided it did prolong her life for a year and half after given a timeline of 6 months. And again I am truly sorry about your friend.

Question: what is the life expectancy for bone cancer that is not spread and no chemo or radiation is taken? my mother in law is being tested for bone cancer and we wont know anything until next week but the family is very concerned. she is 84 and if it comes back positive,(which the doctors think it will), she will not take any treatment. We are wondering what this will do to her body as far as affects and weakness. She is already very week and sleeps alot.

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Question: Bone cancer? Recently I found out that my sister has bone cancer. First they found a brain tumor, and after running tests they also found out she has bone cancer. They are saying that the tumor is a malignant melanoma. My sister is only 29 and has dealt w/ hardships her entire life. Her mother (we only share the same dad) drank heavily while she was pregnant and when she was born she didn't recieve oxygen for too long which resulted in brain damage. She is not retarded but she has problems w/ motor skill and speech. I guess I'm just wondering what anyone can tell me about bone cancer, are there treatment options, and how long is someone w/ bone cancer expected to live? Thanks I'm not sure if I was right about the malignant melanoma wording or not but either way she has a brain tumor

Answer: My heart goes out to you and your sister. Life isn't fair, is it? She shouldn't have to deal with this on top of everything else. If she has a brain tumor and it has spread to the bones, the prognosis usually isn't good. The only one who can really tell you is her oncologist. I'm assuming she's been seeing an oncologist, a cancer specialist. Hopefully, this doctor will be part of a cancer center with a number of doctors and lots of services. The oncologist will recommend a course of treatment, often including radiation and chemotherapy. The treatment is usually done over a period of a few months as an out patient. Your sis will have to go there and have chemo, probably. There are a number of side effects from chemo, but most can be dealt with. The cancer centers have it down and know what to expect. They should be able to keep her comfortable. The main thing is for someone to ask lots of questions. Keep asking until you understand what's going on. Call back for clarification if needed. Someone should go to her appointments with her. This is a traumatic experience and often the patient is too upset to take it all in. Also, it'll be a lot of information and it may be hard for just one person to remember it all. Your sister and her loved ones have a right to understand what's going on and what the plans are. She's going to need a lot of support. Enlist the help of anyone who is willing. As time goes on, you'll know what kind of help you need. It may be help with shopping, laundry, picking up medicine, rides to the doctor. When people ask what they can do, be ready with a real answer. Tell them that they could give her a ride to treatment, or some other chore. It'll make the load easier and it gives the person offering something concrete to do so that they can feel like they helped. This is good for all involved. It's impossible to know what caused the cancer, in most cases. No one should blame themselves. The American Cancer Society is a great help to patients and their families. The provide all kinds of help like getting people wigs or a ride to treatment, as well as educating people and providing support. Their web site is at www.cancer.org I hope this helped. I'm a retired nurse who worked in this area but also the relative of two cancer patients.

Question: What is the chance someone will survive secondary bone cancer? A friend found out she has bone cancer but docs cant find the primary cancer source A friend who is in her early 50's found out she has seconday bone cancer. Her docs cant find the primary source of cancer and theyve ruled out breast cancer. Her platelet count has been very low and shes had to have 2 blood transfusions. She is in alot of pain and is weak. She is also very pale. She goes sometime next week to see what her options are. Im very worried about her.

Answer: Most types of carcinoma metastatic to bone are not considered curable. Breast cancer is a good bet (depending on the person's age) in a situation where the primary cannot be identified and the bone lesions are biopsy proven adenocarcinoma. These people may respond with oral hormonal therapy with or without chemotherapy. The key would then be to control the disease with medication and possibly some focal radiation therapy if needed for symptomatic control. Are you certain this is a malignancy? Is there a confirmed biopsy showing carcinoma? We are greatly hampered by such limited information here. We don't even know the woman's age. If this is an adenocarcinoma, the primary could be a breast cancer, kidney cancer, thyroid cancer, lung cancer, or less likely a GYN malignancy or a GI malignancy. When all testing fails to show the primary, I always treated for the BEST type it could possibly be. All this testing and searching for the cancer cell type just tells us what is likely to help most. Sometimes you have to guess and try different treatments until you find what works for that one special patient - AND - each person/patient is special. It sounds crude when so much of medicine is scientific these days, but there is still some art to the practice of medicine - and experience counts.

Question: How efective is Erbitux for a methastasic bone cancer? What can I expect? The methastasic bone cancer is from an unknown primary without any organ compromised, till now we know his liver has cells but is working normally wihtout any simptom. We have 2 years with this problem one looking for what was the desease and other one with the diagnosis. He is in good shape now, when he´s not in pain.

Answer: Cetuximab (marketed under the name Erbitux) is used in metastatic colon cancer and is given concurrently with the chemotherapy drug irinotecan (Camptosar®), a form of chemotherapy that blocks the effect of DNA topoisomerase I, resulting in fatal damage to the DNA of affected cells. While there remains some scientific controversy on this, assessment for EGFR expression is required for use in Colorectal Cancer, but not in Head & Neck Cancer. It is best to refer to updated Prescription Information [2]. Cetuximab was approved by the FDA in March 2006[3] for use in combination with radiation therapy for treating squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) or as a single agent in patients who have had prior platinum-based therapy. One of the side effects of Cetuximab therapy is the incidence of, possibly severe, acne-like rash. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetuximab Compared to radiation alone, cetuximab plus radiation therapy can nearly double the median survival in patients with a certain kind of head and neck cancer that has not spread to other parts of the body. However, further research is needed to know whether cetuximab plus radiation is more effective than the current standard of care (chemoradiotherapy using the drug cisplatin).

Question: what are the medical food that are best suited for a stage four bone cancer patient? my grandmother is having a bone cancer stage four and i want her to live for a long period of time. pls answer my question.

Answer: Sorry to hear about your grandmother. I had breast cancer. I change my diet by eat mostly raw food. 80% raw foods and 20% regular foods and exercising. I lost over 60 pounds. Nothing is 100% but some changes might help keep cancer in remission. I also believe in alternative therapy. Check out books, websites or healthfood store on cancer alternatives. If you can afford it or have good insurance, there are cancer clinics in Mexico, Calififornia etc. That can help your grandmother. No single food or food substances can protect you against cancer. But scientists believe that the right combination of foods in a predominantly plant-based diet may. Evidence is mounting that the minerals, vitamins and phytochemicals in plant foods interact to provide extra cancer protection. This concept is called synergy. Here is a list of foods we at AICR get asked about most often. Beans Berries Cruciferous Vegetables Dark Green Leafy Vegetables Flaxseed Garlic Grapes and Grape Juice Green Tea Soy Tomatoes Whole Grains http://www.aicr.org/site/PageServer?page… I hope this helps.

Question: Are there any alternative natural herbs for bone cancer? My wifes uncle in Honduras has bone cancer and not much money to fight it. I was wondering if there are natural herbs or methods to fight this disease.

Answer: go on Dr Richard Schulze's incurables program. You can email me and I will send you a link to the save your life videos whee you will learn so much and he salso speifically talks about bone cancer but going on it it is not that cheap), but I live below the poverty line and did it by making my own tinctures. If he goes here someone lists a source to comparable formula that are somewaht cheaper.. http://www.curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=… thoroughly read this curezone site and see herbdoc.com for the formulas. http://curezone.com/schulze/handbook/TNI… also search around the site Email me and I can send a link to the first two videos and how to get the rest.. In the videos, he has a story of a man with bone cancer in 90% of his bones was came to him not for the cancer as he thought it was incurable but for raging bladder infections no doctor could heal..he cured that in three days and eventually the bone cancer too. you might also try essiac tea but be sure it is brewed correctly. also supplement your programs with wheat grass. Get the hoxsey formula or schulze detox formula found at herbdoc.com is similar but not sure that this will be enough. Do searches at curezone.com Best best is the incurables (save your life) program. He might try going to juice fasting (but be sure he is taking an colon cleanse with it like that at herbdoc.com)..as a bare minimum take psyllium with it as the bowels must be working. with it do skin brushing and exercise to use the skin to sweat..see this link and study the incurables program..do the parts he can if he can't afford it like the hot cold showers but not sure if it is enough.. If he is juice fasting, take in only fresh juiced fruits and veggies, potassium broth (see this link for incurables), herb teas, and good water like distilled or reverse osmosis. also read the book cancer battle plan and cancer battle plan sourcebook and if possible see the videos by Dr lorraine day (cancer doesn't scare me anymore) and hoxsey the quack who cured cancer (at the end they list many alternative treatment Of the five program from the past I read cured cancer, I noticed all of them used raw fruits and veggies (preferable organically grown) and their juices). This is because there is a protein coating surrounding each cancer cells and this prevents the immune system from killing it. the enzymes in the produce eat away this coating and this allows the immune system to go in and kill the cancer cells. I read green tea also does this (be sure is is home brewed green tea and no the commercial stuff). there is hope..no matter how bad he is..the best I feel is the incurables but people have also been healed on essiac and the hoxsey formula an all juice fasts as well Please email me for the links to the videos..I can maybe send you the manual but it is hard to send as it is 700 pages if I have your email address, or if I can help further.

Question: How hard is it to get med waiver for army nat guard husband had bone cancer at 3 yr removed no problem now 36? Husband is enlisting in Army National Guard, went through MEPS and is now waiting for a medical waiver. He is 36 now and had a childhood bone cancer when he was 3 years old. It was removed and there haven't been any problems since. What is the likelihood that his waiver will be approved?

Answer: Since cancer is classified as a malignant tumor, a history of a malignant tumor is disqualifying. The first source is the medical standard for this condition. Medical waivers for entry into the National Guard is covered in the second source.