THYROID CANCER
1. What is thyroid cancer?
- The thyroid gland, located in the lower part of the neck, secretes hormones that deliver energy to body cells and controls metabolism.
- Thyroid diseases such as hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, goiter, benign lumps, thyroiditis, auto-immune thyroid disease and thyroid cancer have become common globally.
- Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy.
2. What are the symptoms of thyroid cancer?
- Its symptoms may include lump in the neck, pain in the lower front part of the neck, swollen lymph nodes in the neck, hoarseness of voice, and trouble in breathing and swallowing.
3. Exams and Tests
- Physical examination, blood tests, thyroid and other scans, thyroid ultrasound, fine-needle aspiration biopsy and surgical biopsy can be done to detect thyroid cancer in a patient.
- With early diagnosis and treatment, most of the cases of thyroid cancer are completely curable.
4. Surgery
- For most thyroid cancer cases, the entire thyroid is removed and the patients need to take thyroid replacement hormone throughout their lives.
- Lymph nodes in the neck that contain cancer are also removed.
5. Follow-up
- With Radioactive Iodine Therapy (RIT) post surgery, any thyroid tissue remaining in the body takes up the iodine which kills cancer cells.
- Radioactive Iodine Therapy (RIT) requires a special set up, including isolation rooms and separate drainage system.
- Administering a dosage of radioactive iodine post operatively can save a person’s life by killing the microscopic cancer cells and even help patients whose thyroid cancer reappears after surgery
- After radioactive iodine treatment, patients are kept under observation in isolation wards to check the radiation levels.
- Lutetium therapy is another upcoming treatment option for thyroid cancer.