Signs & Symptoms

  • Bone pain
    • This may start as intermittent pain that progressively becomes more persistent
    • Wakes from sleep
    • Little relief from basic analgesia
  • Local tenderness, swelling
  • Erythema
  • Pathological fracture
  • Limp

Malignant bone tumours are diagnosed in about 60 children a year in the UK.

Bone tumours in children can present with a number of symptoms including bone pain - this may come and go initially but then become more persistent, local tenderness, sometimes erythema, swelling or pathological fracture.

Osteosarcoma and Ewing’s sarcoma are the most common bone tumour types.

 

​Osteosarcoma

Osteosarcoma arises most often at the end of bones where growth occurs. Normal control of this process is lost and a swelling (tumour) occurs.

Osteosarcoma accounts for just over half of childhood bone tumours, with two thirds of childhood cases occurring in the 10 to 14 year age group.

Five-year survival remains at about 65%.

 

Ewings Sarcoma

The Ewing’s family of tumours occur mainly of bone, but can occur in soft tissue as well.

Ewings accounts for just over a third of all bone tumours in children. ​

The overall five year survival rate for Ewing sarcoma of bone is 68%.

 For extra-osseous tumours, the survival rate is lower at 58%.

 

Treatment

​Treatment usually relies on chemotherapy and radiotherapy

Often radical surgery is required including either amputation or limb salvage techniques in the hope of achieving remission.