• Primary bone cancer mainly affects those between 10-20 years of age
 

• There are fewer than 550 new cases in the United Kingdom each year
 

• The type of treatment used to combat bone cancer, and the outlook depends on factors like the type, site and stage of the cancer
 

• The main type of primary bone cancer is osteosarcoma
 

• Osteosarcoma usually occurs at the lower end of the thighbone (femur) or at the knee joint, but it can also appear in other long bones
 

• It destroys bone and spreads rapidly, both into surrounding tissues and then further away throughout the body
 

• The cancer cells produce a bony substance called osteoid, which builds up into lumps on the bone
 

• Other types of primary bone cancer include: Ewings sarcoma, Chondrosarcoma, Spindle cell sarcomas and Chordoma
 

• Bone sarcomas are primary bone tumours- in other words they have not spread to bone from somewhere else
 

• Sarcomas are difficult to diagnose, many patients only receive a diagnosis after numerous investigations and tests.
 

• When they spread to other parts of the body, sarcomas usually go to the lung, occasionally the liver and more rarely elsewhere. This is known as metastatic disease.