The time from tumor formation to the development of metastases is individual not only for each type of cancer and tumor, but also for each patient. Therefore, patients might find that one method works better for them than other options.
What are the options for bone metastases treatment?
Options used for treating bone metastases include drug therapy, radiation therapy, and therapeutic or palliative surgery. However, the possibilities of palliative treatment are limited.
If the condition of a patient allows, physicians remove the tumor first, but other than that, the surgical approach is mostly ineffective with bone metastases. Radiation therapy with local irradiation of individual metastatic foci is mainly used. Chemotherapy can be used as well to treat bone metastases of drug-sensitive tumors. However, the possibilities of this method are usually limited. In general, the effectiveness of chemotherapy in the treatment of bone metastases in most cases is lower than in the treatment of primary tumor, so it is usually combined with local radiation therapy. Thus, physicians most often recommend combined regimens to patients with metastases in bones.
When bone metastases are detected, no matter their number and localization, their sensitivity to the therapeutic agents is important. First, the efficacy of antitumor drug therapy or the lack of thereof. When choosing the treatment option, all prognostic factors are taken into account including the metastatic differentiation, signs of drug resistance, etc.
Also, patients receive symptomatic treatment. For severe pain various analgesic preparations are used, starting with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory analgesics and finishing with narcotic preparations.
You can find more information about options for the treatment of metastases in bones on the Booking Health website.
Which tumors can give metastases to bone tissue?
Practically all malignant neoplasms can give metastases into bones, with the most common being breast and prostate cancer. Bone metastases from lung cancer and cancer of gastrointestinal organs develop less often.
It has been noted that when metastases arise only in the bones of the skeleton but don’t affect other organs and systems, the patient has a better prognosis for survival compared to metastases arising in the lungs, and even more so in the liver.
Where in bones are metastases found?
At the initial stage, bone metastases manifest themselves by pain in every sixth patient, so the vast majority of people have no clinical signs at the beginning of the process. Regardless of the localization, bone pain appears when cancer cells penetrate the well innervated bone covering tissue – periosteum; inside the bone, there are almost no nerve endings, so there is no pain.
Generally, metastases can develop in any bone of the skeleton, but most often tumor cells proliferate in the bones with the best blood supply, where there is always sufficient nutrition. Very rarely metastases form in the small bones of the hand and foot, but they are frequent in the bones of the pelvis, vertebrae, and ribs, also often affecting the skull bones. The oncological affection of the vertebrae and tubular bones of the extremities is the most dangerous for the patient.
Undergoing treatment of bone metastases during a lockdown
If you’ve been diagnosed with bone metastases, you need to start treatment as soon as possible. Going abroad to treat bone metastases is the option that guarantees that treatment will be carried out with innovative methods that are available only at the best hospitals abroad, providing higher chances for the elimination of pain syndrome and other symptoms associated with the condition.
Booking Health can help you organize the treatment abroad quickly and stress-free for you. As soon as you contact Booking Health, patient case managers will offer you a treatment program and start dealing with all the details of the trip organization. Also, you don’t need to worry about the lockdown restrictions, as Booking Health knows how to go about them as well.
All you need to do to start the treatment of metastases in bones is fill out the request form on the Booking Health website so that a medical advisor could contact you.