Can I exercise if my lung cancer has metastasized to my bones?

Can I exercise if I have lung cancer bone metastasis? How to treat it? Bone is a common site for lung cancer metastasis. The incidence of lung cancer bone metastasis is related to the site and pathological type of the primary cancer. Adenocarcinoma has the highest incidence of bone metastasis, followed by small cell lung cancer and squamous cell carcinoma. So how to treat lung cancer bone metastasis?

Bone metastasis of lung cancer is mostly osteolytic destruction, while small cell undifferentiated carcinoma and a few adenocarcinomas may show osteoblastic destruction. Among patients, 80% are osteolytic destruction, 7% are osteoblastic destruction, and 7% are mixed destruction. The incidence of primary lung cancer complicated by hypercalcemia is 26%. Hypercalcemia in cancer patients is not mainly caused by increased osteoclast activity caused by bone metastasis, which causes calcium in the bones to enter the extracellular fluid. It may be caused by PTHrP secreted by the tumor and has nothing to do with bone metastasis. Therefore, the incidence of hypercalcemia is not high in lung cancer patients with bone metastasis.

The lesions of bone metastasis are mainly multiple. The most common sites are: ribs, thoracic vertebrae, lumbar vertebrae, and pelvis; adenocarcinoma mainly metastasizes to the chest and pelvis. Lung cancer bone metastasis is mainly adenocarcinoma, and it often invades the ribs and thoracic vertebrae. The reason may be that adenocarcinoma often occurs around the lungs, which can easily cause direct invasion and involve the ribs and thoracic vertebrae.

In addition, tumor cells reach the bones through the blood circulation and tend to grow and multiply in the trunk bones containing red bone marrow, but rarely grow in the long bones of the limbs containing yellow bone marrow.

Symptoms of lung cancer bone metastasis

Lung cancer is a common disease with a high morbidity and mortality rate. Due to many comprehensive factors, the number of patients with this disease is increasing, which has gradually attracted everyone's attention. Understanding the relevant knowledge of the disease is of great significance for the effective prevention and treatment of this disease. Let's take a look at the symptoms of lung cancer bone metastasis:

1. Chest tightness and shortness of breath are symptoms of lung cancer bone metastasis. When cancer cells invade the pleura, it can cause pleural effusion. A large amount of effusion can cause shortness of breath. Cancer cell tumors invade the pleura and chest wall, which can cause persistent and severe chest pain symptoms.

2. Hoarseness is the most common symptom of lung cancer bone metastasis. The recurrent laryngeal nerve descends from the neck to the chest, bypasses the large blood vessels of the heart and returns to the larynx, innervating the left side of the vocal organs. When lung cancer cells invade the left side of the mediastinum, the recurrent laryngeal nerve is compressed, resulting in hoarseness.

3. Facial and neck swelling is a common symptom of lung cancer bone metastasis. The superior vena cava on the right side of the mediastinum transports venous blood from the upper limbs and head back to the heart. Lung cancer cells invade the right side of the mediastinum and compress the superior vena cava, which causes the jugular vein to swell due to poor blood return, leading to facial and neck swelling.

In addition, lung cancer cells can invade and compress organs and tissues located at the upper opening of the thorax, such as the first rib, subclavian artery and vein, etc., causing a series of symptoms such as severe chest pain, distension of upper limb meridians, edema, arm pain, upper limb movement disorders, and absence of sweat on the face.

Treatment of lung cancer bone metastasis

Radiotherapy (especially TOMO radiotherapy system) is the most effective treatment for advanced bone metastasis of lung cancer. For isolated bone metastasis, after the lung lesions are controlled and stabilized by chemotherapy, high-dose, short-course radiotherapy can be given to relieve pain, kill cancer cells, control the development of lesions, and prevent pathological fractures. A large number of clinical trials have shown that although radiotherapy has achieved good analgesic effects, it often leads to bone marrow suppression and toxic reactions in the blood, which become obstacles to the smooth treatment of patients. Pain symptoms can be effectively relieved, and the total effective rate of analgesia is more than 80%.

Bone is one of the most common sites of malignant tumor metastasis. Bone metastasis is also one of the main causes of death from lung cancer. The diagnosis rate of lung cancer bone metastasis is relatively low, and bone pain, pathological fractures, local compression and hypercalcemia also make treatment complicated.

About 3% of patients present with bone metastasis as the first symptom of lung cancer, and about 30% of patients in the advanced stage will experience bone metastasis. Many complications are also related to bone metastasis, such as severe bone pain, pathological fractures, hypercalcemia, and reduced behavioral ability. Studies have shown that 50% of patients with lung cancer bone metastasis experience bone-related events.