I have a tender growing lump on my rib cage. I'm waiting for a cat scan results. I was wondering what are the symptoms of bone cancer and what are the tests? Can a cat scan show if there is some sort of cancer there? I had an x ray done and it came back clear but my doctor is still concerend as am I. I can feel the lump threw my skin and its tender to touch and does not more. its extreamly hard.
Hello,
I agree with the first opinion about sticking to your doctor's advice, but perhaps a bit of background might not be out of order.
In the rib cage, only the rear two-thirds of each rib is actually made of bone. Approximately the front third is made of gristle, (cartilage). The point where the two (bone and gristle) join, is sometimes a site for swelling if you're very low on vitamin D.
Another possibility is whether,if your lump is in the 'boney' part of the rib, whether you might have knocked and cracked the rib at that point, I mean injured it? A swelling develops at the point where a bone fracture is healing.
There are two species of bone cancer. in the first, less common kind, a cancer of the bone actually starts off in the bone. in the second, more common kind, a cancer in bone is a 'secondary deposit' from a cancer somewhere else in the body.
Cancers in bone, indeed a lot of bone diseases, can be accompanied by changes in the calcium- and bone enzyme- levels in the blood, I wondered if you'd had any blood tests too.
Cat scans, which are basically computerized X rays which show the bone in 3- dimensions, are good at showing up hard bone problems, including cancer. Problems in softer tissues than bone, are often shown up better by an 'MRI' scan.
Hope this background information is of some help.
Best wishes,
Belliger (retired uk gp)
Bone cancer doesn't necessarily cause any noticeable symptoms at first. Often the first symptoms that people typically notice are unusual bone breaks or symptoms associated with blood disorders – anemia, fatigue, weight loss, etc (since bone cancer usually causes blood cell abnormalities). Bone cancer is diagnosed by a blood test and/or a biopsy of bone tissue.
Bone cancer seldom causes lumps to develop, so most likely, the lump is not bone cancer, but it could be some other type of cancer, begin tumor, or cyst. It's a good symptom to find a hard lump – that means that whatever is causing the lump is well-encapsulated, which makes it difficult for cells to spread if they are cancerous.
ct should tell if there is a tumor also other tests are bone scan, MRI, and blood test. Most tumors on the bone should show up on an x-ray. that is how my son's was first diagnosed. we then had all the other test run to find out what type it was. Good luck to you!