Talk:Cervical rib

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Cervical ribs and Cancer[edit]

An anonymous editor removed a paragraph that I had added which had included facts directly relevant to cervical ribs which had ncluded a proper citation. The editor included no explanatory comment for his deletion. For the time being I have reverted those changes back to my previous revision. I'm certainly willing to discussion this revision if the editor can produce a citation that refutes these facts, or if the editor feels that these facts are not relevant to the topic of cervical ribs. Scott Roy Atwood (talk) 17:24, 20 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Please check your facts sir. If you actually look at studies, instead of just blogs, you'll see that a human born with a cervical rib has 125 times the risk of cancer, but the incidence of cancer happens at very young ages, leading to a higher death rate at this young age. If someone with a cervical rib survives beyond infancy, there is no evidence that there is an increased cancer risk. The fact seems as though it should be removed all together, as this is the case with many recessive mutations. You really should be careful before posting misleading facts like that, what happens if somebody who has a cervical rib reads the article and sees this misleading fact? I'm no wikipedian, but it wasnt hard to find that your statistic was misleading, just do a basic websearch for hox mutatations, and scholarly articles come up that show the actual math that leads to "125 percent increase". So please be more careful in the future. Kind regards.
Thank you for the clarification. I have updated the article to reflect the more accurate description of the statistic regarding cancer. I would still argue that this the fact that this condition may be related to mutations of a Hox gene, and the relationship to cancer are deserving of inclusion in an encyclopedia article on this topic. Rather than removing mention of cancer everywhere, perhaps all conditions that are associated with higher incidence of childhood cancer should mention that fact. Remember, people come to Wikipedia for all kinds of information. Some people might come to this article to learn about a medical condition, others to learn something about developmental biology. And certainly for the later, and possibly for the former, the incidence of childhood cancer due to Hox mutation is relevant. Scott Roy Atwood (talk) 16:50, 21 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I'm a newbie to Wikipedia, and this is after the fact, but it seems like this guy before was saying 125x cancer risk was wrong; I just wanted to add that I have access to the academic articles that Myers' blog references, and specifically, the incidence was 25% compared to 0.2%, which is 125x, or 12500% more, not 125% more. Also, I believe the 0.5% stat is a bit high; the articles cited by Myers indicate 0.2%. I'm changing it and referencing. 58.172.136.100 (talk) 12:41, 6 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Cervical ribs in many, many other animals[edit]

Cervical ribs are a common, non-pathological feature of a lot of other vertebrates. Shouldn't this article at least mention that?


im a new one here aswell but just like to clarify for people like me who was born with a cervical rib and has Thoracic Outlet syndrome because of it. Just because you have a cervical rib doesnt mean you will get cancer just because "some facts" say that doesnt mean they are true. if so you would believe the "fact" that if you have more then 6 hours sleep you are more likely to get cancer

cervical rib and cancer[edit]

i am 42 - i have a cervical rib and cancer - colon cancer which a female my age normally has about a 0.2 % chance of having.

Cervical Rib[edit]

I a 23 year old female, at 22 I started to develop hand and arm pain in my left arm and hand, I was soon diagnosed with two fully complete cervical rib bones. Unfortuantly my artieries went up and over these rib bones and compressed the brachial plexus and basically sandwiched my subclavian artery. These obstructions caused two big blood clots in my left arm that were thrombosed. Once the ct scans showed the clots I had to stay in hospital for two weeks before the surgeons removed my left cervical rib and clots, I had 4 months recovery time which was needed as it was quite painful before they would remove the right cervical rib. It was quite a lengthy painful procedure. My last operation was 6 months ago. I am only now starting to research these topics, and as I read about it I find out that there is a 125% higher chance of people with cervical ribs developing cancer?? This scares me, because I recently flew to Sydney and for the first time ever I got quite a servere nose bleed when the plane started descdending, since the flight I have continued to get random nose bleeds, I am worried should I be seeking attention, I went to my gp and he seemed to think I was fine, but the nose bleeds persist, should I get a second opinion or am over reacting like a hypocondiact? Can any one give me an opinion.?


I am a 48-yr. old single mother of six beautiful, inside and out, young adults. I have a cervical rib, "extra" rib. Sometimes the muscles above it knot and I have to rub them smooth. That is the extent of the irritation of my cervical rib.

On August 22, 2007, I was hit by a car, at a red light, and thrown 15 ft. through the air. Not a way I'd have chosen to make the newspapers.

My children were told I would die. My brain was sliced open, the left frontal lobe. Five weeks in a coma.

To this day, I believe that "extra" rib helped keep me alive. Gave me an extra shield against death, kept my heart pumping as I hit the ground full force with the front of my body.

By the way, my brain closed itself. The doctors said it was a miracle. I say, my one miracle, the cervical rib, needed company.

And got it.

Mconway06 (talk) 05:34, 4 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Cervical rib in animals (fossils)[edit]

This article urgently needs a section from an expert in biology. In human it may mean a medical condition, in some animals and fossils it's apparently quite normal. 71.236.26.74 (talk) 05:32, 5 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Origin[edit]

Cervical ribs arise from the Costal element of the C7 (last cervical vertebrae). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 112.135.89.97 (talk) 08:27, 22 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Cross-ref to "Neck rib", please[edit]

I added a sentence to the article intro mentioning that cervical ribs are sometimes known as "neck ribs". If that edit passes muster, a redirect to this page from "Neck rib" would be useful. 98.234.112.116 (talk) 04:45, 21 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Article needs another image[edit]

The article would be improved by the addition of images of the area ( x-rays, 3D scans, drawings) that depict the deference between standard necks and necks with these cervical ribs so readers can see a side-by-side comparison. Or if the areas being talked about were highlighted with an outline or color. ♠Ace Frahm♠talk 09:41, 13 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]