Musculoskeletal Oncology

Musculoskeletal oncology handles bone and soft tissue tumors. It's a unique orthopedic surgical field where diagnosis, treatment, and management of benign and malignant tumors are involved. Many experts work together for patient care, including orthopedic surgeons, oncologists, radiologists, pathologists, and rehab specialists.

Significance of Musculoskeletal Oncology:

Tumors involving the muscles and skeleton can make regular movement difficult. Accurately diagnosing these cancer types is important to determine the type of treatments.

Identifying Musculoskeletal Tumors: Accurate diagnosis and categorization of cancers in muscles or bones are crucial. Doctors learn all they can about the tumor to plan the next course of treatment, which could mean surgery, other therapies, or both.
For bone and muscle tumors, the goal is to remove it all. Whenever possible, the doctors try to save the limb's function too.
After the tumor is removed, another surgery rebuilds the area. Physical therapy aids patients in regaining movement and strength, aiming to restore function and improve quality of life.

Types of Musculoskeletal Tumors and Surgical Procedures:

Primary Bone Tumors:

Benign Ostechondroma growths present with bony bumps, while Osteoid Osteoma are small and present with pain in affected bone. Their treatment needs surgery based on tumor type and the nature of aggressiveness. Your doctor might remove the tumor, scrape out the tumor area, or they might take out the whole tumor in one piece. Radio Frequency Ablation is used for treatment of osteosarcoma.
Malignant tumors must be removed extensively primary cancerous bone tumors like osteosarcoma and chondrosarcoma need extensive surgical removal. Often, other treatments follow surgery, which includes chemotherapy (cancer-killing drugs) and radiation therapy.

Soft Tissue Tumors:

Benign Soft Tissue Tumors: Examples are lipomas (fatty lumps) and fibromas (fibrous growths). These may be removed if causing symptoms or for cosmetic reasons.
Malignant Soft Tissue Tumors: Soft tissue cancers like liposarcoma, leiomyosarcoma, and synovial sarcoma require extensive surgical removal. Usually, additional therapies, like chemotherapy or radiation, are given.

Benefits

The benefits musculoskeletal oncology surgery can provide are:

Local Tumor Control: The aim is to remove the tumor completely, which lowers the chance of it returning and boosts survival odds for cancer patients.
Limb Salvage: Newer surgery methods, techniques for limb sparing (bone grafts and prosthetics), and extra treatments often save the limb these days, preserving use and movement.
Pain Relief: Surgery can stop tumor related pain, enhance joint flexibility, and improve the quality of living for musculoskeletal tumor patients with symptoms.