Bone Cancer Causes & Risk Factors - OmniMedicalSearch.com

Conditions & Diseases: Cancers

Bone Cancer

Causes and Risk Factors for Bone Cancer

Although doctors do not know the exact causes of bone cancer, medical research has identified a number of factors that may place a person at increased risk for bone cancer.

Age: Bone cancers are more common in children and young adults when bones grow rapidly.

Medical disorders:

A. Hereditary medical disorders: A very small number of bone cancers appear to have a hereditary cause. For example, children that suffer from hereditary retinoblastoma (a rare form of eye cancer) and Rothmund-Thompson syndrome (a medical disorder where children are short and suffer from skeletal problems and rashes), or adults with Li-Fraumeni syndrome (a hereditary disorder caused by a mutation of the p53 tumor suppressor gene) and multiple exostoses (a hereditary disorder characterized by bone bumps, deformities and fractures) are at higher risk to develop bone cancer, especially osteosarcomas.

B. Non-hereditary medical disorders: Adults that suffer from Paget's Disease [a bone disorder, common in middle-age adults and elderly, characterized by an abnormal development of new bone cells and excessive bone destruction and disorganized bone structure, leading to heavier and thinker bones, frequent fractures and skeletal deformities] and osteochondroma (benign tumors of the bone and cartilage) are at higher risk for developing osteosarcomas.

Previous medical procedures and treatments:

A. Bone marrow transplantation: In some cases, patients that had bone marrow (stem cell) transplantation developed osteosarcomas.

B. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy: Patients that had radiotherapy and chemotherapy for other forms of cancer are at higher risk to develop bone cancer. The risk for bone cancer increases when the patient was exposed to high doses of radiation therapy at younger ages.

Exposure to radioactive materials: Radium and strontium are two radioactive materials which increase the risk for bone cancer because during the exposure, these minerals can build up in the bones and lead to cancerous cells to develop.

Article by Alina Morrow, MS
Medical Writer
OmniMedicalSearch.com