+1-617-394-8820 contact@baybiosciences.com

Causes of Bone Pain

by | Dec 29, 2022 | Info | 0 comments

Bone Pain Overview

The definition of bone pain is aching, tenderness, or another discomfort in the bone. Bone pain is often described as a deep or penetrating pain. It is one of the most common symptoms of bone cancer, so people should not overlook it.

The most significant cause of bone pain is bone cancer. This disease is most likely to occur in the long bones of the upper arms or legs, but it may affect any bone. When cancer cells originate in the bone itself, this is called primary bone cancer.

Pain caused by bone cancer may have the following symptoms:

  • An initial sense of tenderness in the bone
  • Escalation to a constant pain or a pain that comes and goes in the affected bone
  • Persistent pain during the night and when at rest

Bone pain is often described as a deep or penetrating pain. It often is worse at night and when you move the affected limb. Bone pain, tenderness, or achiness is a common problem, particularly among those who are middle-aged or older.

As you age, your body undergoes many changes. Muscle size and bone density generally decrease as you become less active. This makes you more prone to overuse injury and bone fractures.

While bone pain is most likely due to decreased bone density or an injury to your bone, it can also be a sign of a serious underlying medical condition. Bone pain or tenderness could be the result of infection, an interruption in the blood supply, or cancer.


Causes of Bone Pain

There are many other possible causes of bone pain, which include:

  • Arthritis
  • Bone infection called osteomyelitis 
  • Cancer that has spread from the point of origin, or metastatic malignancy
  • Bone cancer
  • Excessive use, overuse or repetitive movement injury
  • Bone fracture, or break
  • Fracture following an accident or another trauma injury 
  • An infection
  • Growing pains in children and teenagers 
  • Hormone deficiency, usually due to menopause
  • Interruption of the blood supply to the bones (as occurs in sickle cell anemia
  • A fracture caused by a twisting injury that usually occurs in toddlers, known as Toddler’s fracture 
  • Leukemia a type of cancer that starts in the bone marrow 
  • Osteoporosis a condition in which a deficiency of calcium and vitamin D causes bones to be fragile

There are also some other possible causes. Osteoporosis is a condition in which your bone mass is reduced below what is considered normal.

Age, hormonal changes, and lack of physical activity are factors that contribute to decreasing bone density. This can increase your likelihood of developing bone fractures and suffering bone pain.


Bone Cancer Symptoms

In addition to bone pain, the possible symptoms of bone cancer are:

  • A lump over or near the affected bone
  • Bone fractures after just a small injury or fall, because cancer has made the bones fragile
  • Swelling or inflammation (redness) in or around the affected area

Less common symptoms may also include the following:

 

Diagnosing the Cause of Bone Pain

Your doctor will want to know your complete medical history, including previously diagnosed conditions, and the specifics of your bone pain.

These might include the following:

  • Any other symptoms you may have
  • The location of your pain
  • When your pain began
  • The level of pain and whether or not it is increasing
  • If your pain changes with your activities

Depending on the specifics of your pain, as well as a thorough physical examination, additional testing may include:

  • Blood studies
  • CT scan, MRI, or bone scan of the affected area or your entire body (to identify tumors or other abnormalities)
  • Hormone level studies
  • Pituitary and adrenal gland function studies 
  • Urine studies 
  • X-rays of the bone that hurts (to identify breaks, fractures, and abnormalities)


Treatment for Bone Cancer

Treatment aims to relieve pain, mend any fractures, and prevent or delay further bone complications. There are different treatment approaches for bone cancer depending on its type and how far it has spread in the body.

These include the following:

  • Surgery: Involves removing the cancerous portion of the bone. Where possible the surgeon will rebuild the bone after surgery, but sometimes they will need to amputate part of the bone.
  • Chemotherapy: A cancer treatment that uses drugs to kill the malignant cells and tissues.
  • Radiation Therapy: A cancer treatment that uses radiation to destroy cancer cells.
  • Mifamurtide: A drug used to treat osteosarcoma, a specific type of bone cancer. This treatment stimulates the body’s immune system to attack and kill cancer cells.

 

Treatment Options for Other Causes

Treatment for non-cancerous bone pain depends largely on the cause of the pain.

A doctor’s diagnosis will determine the treatment, which may consist of:

  • Antibiotics
  • Corticosteroids
  • Anti-inflammatories
  • Hormones
  • Antidepressants
  • Painkillers (or analgesics)
  • Calcium and vitamin D supplements (for osteoporosis)
  • Anticonvulsants, where bone pain is nerve-related


Recover from Bone Pain

In most cases, it takes some time to heal the issue causing the bone pain, whether the pain comes from chemotherapy or a fracture.

During recovery, avoid aggravating or bumping the affected areas. This can prevent further injury and pain and allow healing. Rest the affected areas as much as possible and immobilize the area if there’s a risk of further injury.

For some people, aids such as braces, splints, and casts can offer support that can both protect the bone and relieve pain.

 

Prevention of Bone Pain

Maintaining strong, healthy bones makes it easier to avoid bone pain. To maintain optimal bone health, remember to:

  • Avoid smoking
  • Drink only in moderation
  • Get enough calcium and vitamin D
  • Maintain a healthy exercise plan

In addition to improving bone health, you can also avoid injuries that lead to bone pain. Try to prevent falls by keeping your floors clutter-free and watching for loose rugs or poor lighting.

Be careful when going up or down the stairs or on escalator. For sporting activities, especially contact sports like football or boxing, wear proper protective gear.

Outlook

The outlook for bone cancer might be different depending on:

  • Age
  • Type of bone cancer
  • How far the cancer has spread in the body
  • The likelihood of the cancer spreading further

Primary bone cancer is rare. According to the American Cancer Society, about 3,500 people will receive a diagnosis of primary bone cancer in 2019, accounting for 0.2 percent of all cancers.

If a person’s cancer has not spread and they are otherwise in good health, treatment will be more straightforward, and their outlook will be better.

According to statistics, about 75 percent of patients diagnosed with primary bone cancer live for 1 year or more, while over 50 percent live for 5 years or longer.

Bay Biosciences is a global leader in providing researchers with high quality, clinical grade, fully characterized human tissue samples, bio-specimens, and human bio-fluid collections.

Samples available include cancer (tumor) tissue, cancer serum, cancer plasma, cancer, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). and human tissue samples from most other therapeutic areas and diseases.

Bay Biosciences maintains and manages its own biorepository, the human tissue bank (biobank) consisting of thousands of diseased samples (specimens) and from normal healthy donors available in all formats and types.

Our biobank procures and stores fully consented, deidentified and institutional review boards (IRB) approved human tissue samples and matched controls.

All our human tissue collections, human specimens and human bio-fluids are provided with detailed, samples associated patient’s clinical data.

This critical patient’s clinical data includes information relating to their past and current disease, treatment history, lifestyle choices, biomarkers, and genetic information.

Patient’s data is extremely valuable for researchers and is used to help identify new effective treatments (drug discovery & development) in oncology, and other therapeutic areas and diseases.

Bay Biosciences banks wide variety of human tissue samples and biological samples, including cryogenically preserved at – 80°C.

Including fresh frozen tissue samples, tumor tissue samples, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE), tissue slides, with matching human bio-fluids, whole blood and blood-derived products such as serum, plasma and PBMC.

Bay Biosciences is a global leader in collecting and providing human tissue samples according to the specified requirements and customized, tailor-made collection protocols.

Please contact us anytime to discuss your special research projects and customized human tissue sample requirements.

Bay Biosciences provides human tissue samples (human specimens) from diseased and normal healthy donors which includes:

We can also procure most human bio-specimens, special collections and requests for human samples that are difficult to find. All our human tissue samples are procured through IRB-approved clinical protocols and procedures.

In addition to the standard processing protocols, Bay Biosciences can also provide human plasma, serum, and PBMC bio-fluid samples using custom processing protocols; you buy donor-specific collections in higher volumes and specified sample aliquots from us.

Bay Biosciences also provides human samples from normal healthy donors; volunteers, for controls and clinical research, contact us Now.

日本のお客様は、ベイバイオサイエンスジャパンBay Biosciences Japanまたはhttp://baybiosciences-jp.com/contact/までご連絡ください。