Going to the doctor and getting tests done to your body is always an unpleasant experience. It can become even more unpleasant when the tests are being done in order to see if you have bone cancer. Bone cancer occurs when a lump of abnormal cancer cells that develop in the bone lump into a mass and affect a specific bone in the body. This condition affects less than 200,000 people each year. Going to the doctor to get tested for bone cancer can be a terrifying experience. Knowing what is going to happen during the testing can make the experience less scary, because you will know exactly what to expect when you walk into the doctor’s office. You will also know why each test is important, and what is going to be happening to your body during each test.
The tests that are performed on you in order to find out if you have bone cancer will depend on your current situation. The first tests that are usually done on a person to see if they have bone cancer are called imaging tests. Your doctor may want to do one or more image tests to evaluate certain areas of concern. Some of these imaging tests include: X-ray, bone scan, computerized tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imagine (MRI), and positron emission tomography (PET). These scans are painless, and you will have to lie still while the experts take images of your body.
Another test that may happen when looking for bone cancer is a removal of a sample of tissue for laboratory testing. This is called a biopsy. They will remove a sample of tissue from the tumor. After the sample is removed, the sample will be sent to a laboratory for testing. The testing will reveal if there is any cancer in the bone, and what type of bone cancer it is. Testing can also tell doctors understand how aggressive the cancer may be to your body.
There are two ways of doing a biopsy to see if you have bone cancer. The first way is through inserting a needle through your skin into the tumor. The doctor will insert the needle through your skin and put it into the tumor. The needle is used to remove small pieces of tissue from the tumor. This process is similar to that of drawing blood.
The second way to perform a biopsy is through surgery to remove a tissue sample for testing. Your doctor will make an incision through your skin and remove one of two things. The first is the entire tumor, which is called an excision biopsy. The second thing the doctor may remove is a portion of the tumor, which is also called an incisional biopsy. You may be fully asleep during this procedure, or the area where the tumor is will be numbed so you do not feel pain during this procedure.
Once it is determined whether or not you have bone cancer, the doctor will use their results to assess which stage your cancer is in. There are four stages of bone cancer, and your treatment regime will depend on what stage cancer you have.
Although going to the doctor for a possible bone cancer diagnosis can be frightening, it is important to know that a diagnosis will lead to treatment and a possible cure from cancer. Knowing exactly what is going to happen to your body will make the experience less scary, and it will help you get closer to getting rid of bone cancer once and for all.