Ewing sarcoma, the bone cancer affecting children and adolescents

By Cristiano Antonino On Nov 17, 2022

A very strong and persistent pain in the knee, leg, or any other part of the body, sometimes accompanied by swelling: these are the initial symptoms of Ewing sarcoma, a bone tumour that affects about 100 people every year in Italy, mostly children and adolescents

It was precisely with an ‘incredible pain’ in her knee that the illness of Alice Manfrini, the 24-year-old tiktoker who had described her life with the disease day by day and who, unfortunately, did not make it, also began.

Like her, other young people from all over the world share their experience with this rare disease, describing the initial symptoms (pain, swelling, numbness) and the stages of therapy.

BUT WHAT IS EWING SARCOMA?

It is actually a family of tumour forms with similar characteristics that tend to affect mainly the bones, especially those of the pelvis, thoracic region and legs, as stated on the Airc website.

The main target of this rare type of tumour seems to be males, who are affected up to one and a half times more than females, but the causes and possible predispositions to this disease are not yet fully known.

At present, there is not even any kind of prevention that can be effective against this disease, whose symptom often reported by patients is this acute and persistent pain, which tends to intensify over time.

To be diagnosed, however, it is necessary to see a specialist and have an X-ray taken.

After the diagnosis has been made, it is important to establish the stage of the disease immediately in order to be able to proceed with the most appropriate therapy.

In some cases, the tumour is fought with chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery, or a combination of the three, but it is also possible to use high doses of chemotherapy followed by transplantation of stem cells that replace the marrow cells destroyed by chemotherapy drugs.

Survival varies greatly depending on whether the tumour is metastatic or not: in young people with non-metastatic localised tumours in the extremities, survival at 5 years after diagnosis is 70%, while it drops sharply to below 40% if metastases are present at onset.

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