Causes of osteosarcoma
The exact cause of osteosarcoma is unknown. However, there are some risk factors, such as:
- Rapid bone growth: The chances of osteosarcoma occurring is high during a child’s and adolescent’s growth spurts.
- Exposure to radiation: This might have happened from treatment for another type of cancer. This can take a few or several years to occur.
- Bone infarction: This occurs when there is a lack of blood supply yo the bone tissue which can destroy the cells.
- Genetic factors: Osteosarcoma is one of the several types of rare cancers common in young people. It may be related to the retinoblastoma gene, which can be associated with eye cancers in young children or with other tumors in children and young adults in which a mutation of the p53 gene is involved.
Each year, the United States sees between 400 and 1,000 new cases of osteosarcoma.
Of all childhood cancers, osteosarcoma makes up about 3%. It is the most primary bone tumours in children. After lymphomas [7] and brain tumours [8], osteosarcoma is the third most prevalent cancer among adolescents.