Telling the difference between Tietze's cartilage swelling and Tumors?
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I'm an 18 year old male and I first noticed a smallish hard lump on the left side of my sternum almost a year ago, which formed after some pain to the area. However since then there have been more firm lumps that have appeared. Each seem to be Tietze's lumps, as they are all approximately on costal cartilages or ribs, flare up, and do have lingering pain when touched, but almost no information online has helped me deduce the difference between a Tietze's swelling and a tumor.
The main reasons I don't believe they are tumors are that tumors seem to stay in one place and grow larger, rather than staying the same general size once appearing and affecting other areas remotely. There aren't any places I've been able to find accounts of multiple bony lumps on the ribs regarding tumors/cancer, but people have discussed having Tietze's that has spread to different ribs. Presumably bone cancer/tumors would hurt more than these lumps do, as the lumps only have lingering pains when they flare up or are pressed firmly.
Instead I believe that this is Tietze's caused by untreated/undiagnosed Secondary Syphilis, as there have been symptoms that align for syphilis and would not be caused by any sort of tumors in my ribs, such as testicular pain and light painless rashes on the hands and feet. The spreading of syphilis through my rib cage would also explain the numerous Tietze's lumps, as it is being caused by an ongoing infection.
What kind of characteristics help differentiate the cases of Tietze's and Tumors?
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slime
Posted
Furthermore, the lumps I am experiencing feel uniform and smooth, flush with the ribs - not like external objects growing on the surface on them. After the initial lump on the left sternum, they've appeared on both sides going all the way down to the lowest ribs and up on to the collarbone connections - at least 5 distinct hard lumps in all. Stretching/compressing my rib cage can also cause the affected joints to pop, something I haven't seen connected to tumors either. Some of them are long and affect a wider portion of the rib, and others are more contained and "pointed". Most are very flat and aren't very visible.