The most common symptoms of thyroid cancer are growth and swelling in the neck. Because the cancer has not spread yet, the thyroid usually works normally. In addition, pain is rare with medullary cancer. Ninety percent of thyroid nodules are not cancerous. However, nodules that are cancerous will tend to come back after they’ve been removed. If you’re at risk of thyroid cancer, you should consider getting a thyroid scan.
The treatment for thyroid cancer depends on the type of cancer and its stage, as well as your overall health. For the most advanced cases, your doctor may recommend surgery to remove your thyroid. Thyroid surgery involves a small incision in the neck. This procedure may also involve the removal of lymph nodes nearby. Minimally invasive thyroid surgery, however, involves a smaller incision and can produce fewer scars than traditional thyroid surgery. Post-operative thyroid hormone replacement may also be recommended.
Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) is a test to check for thyroid cancer. This procedure uses ultrasound technology to guide a needle into the thyroid nodule. Although there is a slight risk of failing to collect enough cells for a diagnosis, there is a ninety-seven percent chance that the nodule is benign. If it is, your doctor will repeat the test in six months. Afterwards, you’ll get a physical exam and a USG.
Anaplastic cancer, which does not have a distinct subtype, is relatively rare. The incidence of anaplastic thyroid cancer is one to two per million people worldwide. Anaplastic cancer tends to occur in older patients than differentiated cancer. The average age of diagnosis is sixty-five years; fewer than ten percent of patients are diagnosed at a younger age. Approximately sixty percent of thyroid cancer tumors are diagnosed in women, while ten percent are diagnosed in young men.
Follicular thyroid cancer is the most common type of thyroid cancer, and accounts for eighty to ninety percent of all cases. While papillary thyroid cancer is generally benign, follicular cancer has a high risk of spreading to other parts of the body, including the lymph nodes. A five-year survival rate is about ninety percent. Because it develops slowly, treatment can take a while, but if you are diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer, you can expect a full recovery.
In addition to surgical treatment, radioactive iodine treatment is often used to treat MTC. This therapy involves taking a pill that contains radioactive iodine, which destroys any remaining cancer cells in the body. It is often given in conjunction with chemotherapy, and may be needed after surgery if the cancer has spread to the neck lymph nodes or is resistant to radioactive iodine therapy. Additionally, some patients are treated with chemotherapy, which is a drug injection into the vein.
Thyroid cancer can be prevented by removing the gland. The disease usually develops five years after exposure, but it can also be prevented by removing the gland altogether. Once diagnosed, doctors will perform surgery to remove the tumor. The recovery time may be longer, but the surgery is worth it in the long run. A diagnosis of thyroid cancer should be a key decision for any patient. There is no cure for thyroid cancer, but it’s not uncommon for the disease to be treated successfully.
