Cancer is described as should there be an abnormal excessive growth of any tissue. So does or may cancer affect the foot? Of course it can, as the foot has all the same tissues as other parts of the body. Cancer in the foot is rather uncommon, however when it does happen it has the potential to be serious since it is often missed or wrongly diagnosed as a condition not so critical. There are two types of cancer that could possibly impact the foot. One is where the cancer starts in the foot, so this might be in the any tissue from the skin to the bone to joint or the ligaments to the nerves or the blood vessels. Because the foot is a weight-bearing part of the body and has many things which may go wrong a really high index of suspicion is required to identify one of these primary cancers from what might be thought to be a typical and frequent foot problem. This is the reason the competence of a good competent clinician is necessary to deal with foot ailments and to exclude one of these more possibly serious conditions that are uncommon.
The other kind of cancer which can affect the foot is a metastasis or a spread of the cancer from a different part of the body. This cancer may be already be diagnosed and might spread to the foot where it causes pain in the foot. Alternatively the cancer may begin developing in another area of the body and it is un-diagnosed there and it sends a metastasis or spreads to the foot to cause pain in the foot. This is extremely unusual but when it can happen it is quite serious because it usually signifies that the initial cancer is well established. It also presents a diagnostic problem for the clinician who is trying to diagnose the explanation for the pain in the foot. Again, a very high index of suspicion and instinct is required by the clinician to pick this up in the early stages. The sooner that these types of cancers are identified the better the end result is likely to be.