May 25, 2012
Topics A-Z Cancer Painful lump on the back of the hand in a female teenager
Painful lump on the back of the hand in a female teenager |
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Dear Ask The Doctor: About a year ago, i started having extreme wrist pain that comes and goes. When I bend my wrist downwards, there is a pronounced bump on the back of my wrist where the pain is concentrated. At first my doctor thought that it was a ganglion cyst but after feeling it he decided that it was actually a bone. I had x rays and not much showed up on them. I looked up some things and bone cancer matched a lot of my symptoms. Im a 15 year old girl, is bone cancer likely? If not, what could it be? Dear Mallory: You are a teenager and before thinking in a serious diagnostic as Cancer, a hand specialist has to evaluate your case and the nature of the lump in the back of your wrist has to be determined certainly, either by specific and sensitive imaging studies (MRI) or by surgical removal of the lump and send it to the pathologist , so an accurate and definitive diagnosis can be established. The most common cause for a lump in the back of the hand/wrist is a Ganglion Cyst. Then you have: a Carpal Boss which is an overgrowth of bone similar to a bone spur, is firmer and less movable than a ganglion and it can be misdiagnosed as a ganglion. Enchondroma, which is a growth of cartilage inside the bone and it is not malignant. For your information, the most common types of cancer of the wrist/hand are the Skin cancers (squamous cell carcinoma, Basal cell carcinoma, Melanoma). I strongly recommend you to get a consultation with a hand specialist. |
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 22 December 2010 ) |
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