Ewing's sarcoma is a type of bone cancer. It can also occur outside of bone in the soft tissues when it is called extraosseous Ewing's (Ewing's growing outside of the bone) or primitive neuroectodermal tumour (PNET).

Bone cancers can be divided into two main groups: primary and secondary. Primary bone cancers are tumours which start in the bones, secondary bone cancers are tumours which are made up of seedlings of cancer which have come from tumours elsewhere in the body and spread to the bones.

Secondary bone cancers are very common whereas primary bone cancers are very uncommon. There are only about 600 new primary bone cancers diagnosed in the UK each year and they make up less than 1% of all cancers.

There are several different types of primary bone cancer and Ewing's sarcoma is the second commonest of these.

Ewing's sarcomas are most often seen between the ages of five years and thirty years, with the tumours being most common between the ages of 10 to 15. They are slightly more common in boys than girls.

Ewing's sarcomas usually develop in either the pelvis or one of the long bones of the leg.

Ewing's sarcomas usually first appear as swellings on the bone which are often painful and commonly accompanied by a fever.

These are quite aggressive cancers with s strong tendency to spread to the lungs, other bones and the bone marrow, but often respond well to treatment.

In the past radiotherapy or surgery where the principal treatments and although these often controlled the primary bone sarcoma less than 1 in 10 people survived because of the spread of the cancer to other sites. Ewings sarcomas are more sensitive than most primary bone cancers to chemotherapy and over the last twenty years intensive chemotherapy has been routinely introduced as part of the treatment of Ewing's sarcoma. This has transformed the outcome so that now the majority of people are cured.