Knee Tumor Surgery Recovery

Bone cancer can create tumors in the knee that require extensive treatment and often surgery to ameliorate. Primary bone cancer can appear in any bone in the body, but it most often creates growths in the arms and legs. Most bone cancers are treated by a combination of chemotherapy, surgical tumor removal and radiotherapy. In some rare cases, amputation of the leg below the femur may be necessary.

• Knee tumor surgery recovery is an extensive process.

Primary and Secondary Bone Cancer

• The two main types of bone cancer are primary and secondary cancers. In the former case, tumors originally develop in the bone itself. This may spread to other parts of the body. Secondary bone cancer exists when the original tumor growths happened in another part of the body than the bone itself. Surgical knee tumor removal is usually less arduous in the case of secondary bone cancer, as the tumors are typically of a smaller size.

Types of Bone Cancer

• Bone cancers are further split into different types. Osteosarcoma is the most common form of bone cancer and usually forms in the knee. It forms at the ends of the bone, usually in children and young adults ages 10-25 according to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Chondrosarcomas forms in cartilaginous tissue, and is the next most common form of the cancer. Ewing's Sarcoma forms in the middle to upper bone sections mostly in children and young adults ages 10-25, but rarely appears in the knees. Rare forms of bone cancer include Fibrosarcomas, Adamantinomas, Chordomas and Giant Cell Tumors. Recovery times for removal for each type of bone cancer are primarily dependent on how extensively the cancer has spread.

Knee Tumor Removal Surgery

• Knee tumor surgery almost always requires that surrounding cartilage and muscle tissue surrounding the cancerous bone material be removed. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are often used prior to surgical tumor removal to reduce the size of the tumors. Amputation of the leg below the femur may be necessary if the cancer spreads too far for conventional therapies to be effective. The more soft tissue and bone that must be removed, the longer the post-surgery recovery time is likely to be.

Post-Surgical Treatment

• After knee tumor surgery, it is often necessary to graft bones from other parts of the body or install a prosthesis to maintain bone and joint function. This requires additional surgery after the tumor removal, adding to the recovery time. If the cancer has been eliminated, no further treatment may be necessary. The length of recovery time depends on the extent to which the cancer has grown and spread. The National Institute of Health states that bone grafts require between two weeks and two months to allow for healing and recovery. Physiotherapy can ameliorate the recovery time, but should not be undertaken without consultation with any physicians providing chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

Knee Tumor Removal Recovery

• Recovery time for knee tumor removal surgery is entirely dependent on the individual case. According to the National Cancer Institute, between 67.5 and 72.1% of individuals diagnosed with bone cancer are still alive 5 years after diagnosis, with survival rates differing depending on gender and ethnic background. Further surgery may be necessary if the cancer recurs. Amputations can require physiotherapy lasting years to treat properly.