Rib cancer is a malignant tumor that develops in bone tissue. Arcuate bones, connected to the sternum and vertebrae, are the framework for the organs located in the chest.
Reasons
In the vast majority of cases, rib cancer develops for the following reasons:
- Premalignant bone diseases, such as fibrous dysplasia or Paget's disease.
- Heredity, but the factor is not proven, according to doctors, it is secondary.
- Radioactive radiation - even if it was performed to treat benign tumors. As a result of such actions, a new focus may appear, which may appear several years after exposure.
- Genetic abnormalities - a link has been established between the development of rib cancer and damage to some chromosomes. The exact cause of such changes has not been identified, but most likely they are the result of inferior intrauterine development.
- The effect of carcinogens - interacting with DNA, chemicals of various kinds contribute to the transition of cells from he althy to cancerous.
Mostly, the development of cancer is due to insufficient functioningimmunity, as well as various injuries, which are a catalyst for the progression of a cancerous condition, are of no small importance. In children, the incidence of the disease is associated with their accelerated growth and development.
Signs and symptoms
Rib cancer is a malignant tissue lesion characterized by atypical and infiltrating growth of cancer cells. Cancer occurs mainly in children and men. The danger lies in the proximity of organs that are very important for he alth, since the tumor can quickly cover them.
The main manifestation and symptom of rib cancer is pain in the chest area. At the first stage, the pain may not bother at all or be insignificant. After some time, the pain becomes intense, brings discomfort. The appearance of bone neoplasms, for example, Ewing's sarcoma, is also noted. With osteosarcoma, pain cannot be relieved by analgesics, and often they become quite long.
Sometimes the pain of cancer in the tissues of the ribs is felt when inhaling, especially at night. A visible malignant formation can be viewed very rarely, and with the growth of the tumor deep into the sternum, it may not be at all. In some cases, the doctor feels a loose, soft seal. If the cancer progresses and the tumor becomes larger, the vascular network protrudes, the skin is stretched, swollen and reddened.
Separate types of sarcomas (oseto- or fibrosarcoma) withpressure causes pain, while other varieties will develop painlessly. Signs of rib cancer during intoxication appear at the last stage:
- temperature rising;
- anemia is on the rise;
- the patient feels general weakness.
If the autonomic nervous system is involved in the process, the patient develops neurological disorders:
- paranoia;
- excessive arousal, etc.
If the cancer affects the lungs, there will be difficulty breathing, coughing, and in severe cases, hemoptysis. With early detection and correct, effective treatment, people with rib cancer have a fairly favorable chance of a cure.
Operation
Quite often, people go to the clinic with complaints of various tumor diseases, one of which is rib cancer. Photo of the operation called laparoscopy - above.
These are malignant tumors arising from the cellular structure of the bone tissue of the ribs. The disease occurs in people of different ages, and it manifests itself in two types - primary or secondary.
The latter occur during the germination of formations localized in the soft tissues of the bones, or the formation of secondary foci from the internal organs located near the affected area. Primary formations, known in medical terminology as sarcomas, develop very quickly, so the prognosis for patients with such a diagnosis is disappointing. The point is that at the initial stagedisease symptoms are very weak, but in some cases it is still possible to find a tumor and start treatment on time. The main treatment for such malignant tumors is surgery, which involves the removal of a cancerous tumor by surgery.
For rib bone cancer, doctors often use a combined method of treatment. In addition to extensive surgery, radiation or chemotherapy is used. In most cases, with malignant tumors in the late stages and metastases in the ribs in cancer, pre- and postoperative chemotherapy is performed.
In the first case, therapy is to prevent inflammation and reduce the size of the sarcoma. This greatly simplifies the further process of treatment during surgery, thereby increasing the final result of the healing process.
Since surgery is the main treatment for sarcoma, for the best effect, the actions should be total or subtotal. In some cases, it is required to stop several bones and the sternum. In such cases, the most difficult thing is the restoration of the thoracic region, which performs the protective function of the internal organs. If the bones are not properly spliced, problems may arise regarding their work.
The process of chest reconstruction surgery includes the following steps:
- sealing the pleural cavity;
- reconstruction of bone elements of the thoracic region;
- savingsphysiological dimensions of nearby cavities;
- recovery of the epidermis and soft tissues.
Sometimes when removing cancerous tumors, natural or artificial implants are required. For the regeneration of soft tissues, the tissues of the muscles of the dorsal, thoracic or abdominal regions act as samples. To eliminate ruptures of the pleural cavity, the dura mater is used. The most difficult part of the recovery process for extensive sarcoma is the reconstruction of the removed ribs.
After removing the tumor, doctors conduct a morphological examination of the cropped tissues in order to understand the degree of cardinality of the surgical intervention. If there are no tumor cells at the edges of the resection, then the operation can be considered successful. This method reduces the chance of recurrence of the disease for a long period. However, in most cases, it is not possible to stop the tumor completely, which threatens with relapse or metastases.
As for radiation therapy, this method is not always suitable for the treatment of thoracic bone cancer, but in difficult situations, radiation helps to lower the pain threshold and improve the general condition of the patient. With radiosensitive formations, such as Ewing's tumor, this method of treatment is the main one, in this case a dosage of 60 to 65 grams is used. When the cell structure of the sarcoma is exposed to ionizing radiation, the cancer cells die. Radiation therapy for patients is used before and after surgery, and in some cases it is combined with chemotherapy.
Medications for surgery
Whensurgical operations on malignant tumors, medications are used. For each case, drugs are selected individually. Medicines used for cancer:
- "Vincristine";
- "Methotrexate";
- "Cyclophosphamide";
- "Cisplatin";
- "Doxorubicin";
- "Ifosfamide".
Before the operation, the patient is given anesthesia, after which the puncture of the pleural cavity. If the affected area contains pus, it is necessary to make a cupping of the rib. An incision for access to a cancerous tumor is made along the rib in the center of its outer side. Then, along its entire length, with a scalpel, an incision is made in the periosteum of the rib, two transverse incisions are added along its edges.
The surgeon and his assistants must wear sterile gloves, and the instrument necessary for the operation must be prepared and sterilized in advance.
Painkillers
In the treatment of cancer, attention is paid not only to the effect on the neoplasm itself, but also to improving the patient's quality of life, in particular, the fight against regular pain. Pain is caused by an enlarged tumor, but pain may be a secondary result of certain cancer medications.
The selection of painkillers depends on the stage of the disease. WHO has created a three-step scheme, which implies a transition from non-narcotic analgesics to weak opiates, and then to strong opiates. This model makes it possibleachieve improvement in 9 out of 10 patients.
Adjuvant drugs
Medications are not considered painkillers in the strict sense of the word, but they reduce the side effects of powerful opioids and increase their sedative effects (eg "Clonidine"). Antidepressants also give concrete results.
Non-narcotic analgesics
This is the first step in the removal of pain in oncology. For these purposes, paracetamol-based substances are used, as well as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs ("Ibuprofen").
Weak opiates. These funds include "Codeine", "Tramadol" and others. These are potent substances, but, nevertheless, they are tolerable. They have a particularly noticeable effect when combined with non-narcotic analgesics.
Strong opiates
In cases where the pain becomes very powerful and other remedies cannot help, the doctor prescribes strong opiates based on morphine, fentanyl, etc. They affect the central nervous system directly, suppressing nerve impulses.
Enzymes
Enzymes belong to active protein combinations that are ready to break down the amino acids necessary to increase tumor cells. Arginase, asparginase and certain other enzymes are used to treat tumors. The effectiveness of this kind of therapy is questionable, since resistance is produced incredibly quickly: the human immune system begins to form antibodies to them. But research shows thatenzyme therapy significantly mitigates the effects of chemotherapy results.
Antivirals
Certain types of cancer develop due to the activity of microbes (for example, the human papillomavirus). In addition, the body, exhausted by aggressive chemotherapy, is sometimes unable to protect itself from viral infections on its own. It is for this reason that antiviral drugs are also used in the complex therapy of cancer, in particular, substances based on tilorone and their analogues.
Hormone Therapy
In the treatment of rib cancer, good results are obtained by the use of hormonal substances. They are more effective in curing hormone-dependent tumors. Estrogen-containing substances are prescribed to suppress androgens, and androgen-containing substances, on the contrary, destroy the release of estrogens. Despite the effectiveness, hormonal substances have a large number of disadvantages - they are ready to reduce the effect of chemotherapeutic substances, with a long cure, many patients develop resistance to such drugs.
Cancer Prevention
Timely diagnosis and timely treatment of rib cancer are the key to a normal he althy life. It is dangerous because in the initial stages it is asymptomatic and has a large number of varieties. Doctors are unanimous in their opinion that there are no specific manipulations to prevent rib cancer. Most often this disease affects children aged 3 to 15 years, so parents should pay close attention to he althchild, if any of the relatives were exposed to any disease associated with oncology, because then the child will be at risk.
Oncological diseases associated with bone cancer are insidious in that even with a visible improvement in he alth status and indicators of all tests, the disease can make itself felt at any moment and progress faster than before.
To prevent the occurrence and recurrence of rib cancer, you should:
- to undergo a full examination at least once every six months;
- take tests to detect malignant cells (those at risk) - once every 3 months;
- treat responsibly by not skipping any treatments if you already have rib cancer.
