Unexplained knee swelling and pain may be caused by bone cancer

If teenagers experience swelling and pain in the knee joints without obvious reasons, special attention should be paid, because it is likely caused by bone cancer.

Li Qiang, 20 years old this year, is a sports student. His main training event is the men's 400 meters. He also practices triple jump on weekdays. He has suffered many injuries during the years of training, but fortunately they were all minor. However, recently he has had unexplained swelling and pain in his knee joints. Thinking back to his recent training, he had no injuries at all. Considering that it might be a recurrence of an old injury, he went to the hospital for treatment.

The doctor performed X-rays and MRI examinations on him, and later diagnosed him with bone cancer. Fortunately, it was discovered in time, the lesion was not large and had not metastasized, so the prognosis was relatively good.

At the same time, the doctor reminded the patient's family that the age of onset of bone cancer is generally between 12 and 20 years old, and certain symptoms will appear in the early stages, such as the unexplained swelling and pain in the knee joint shown by Li Qiang. In addition, some patients will experience bone and joint pain or swelling in the early stages, and the pain will often intensify at night. The pain may manifest as persistent dull pain or only feel pain when under pressure. In more serious cases, pathological fractures or deformations may occur.

If bone cancer occurs in other parts of the body, the symptoms will be different. If it is in the back, the patient will have persistent back pain. If it is in the limbs, there will be numbness in the distal part of the limbs. This is caused by the cancer compressing the nerves and blood vessels. No matter where the cancer occurs, when it develops to a certain period of time, the patient will show certain systemic symptoms, such as fever, weight loss, fatigue, and decreased mobility.