Kinds of Thyroid Cancer

kinds of thyroid cancer via endocrineweb.com

Hi my name is Citra Kumar I'm an assistant professor of surgical oncology here at Roswell Park Cancer Institute my areas of specialty include breast cancer and thyroid cancer and since

September is thyroid cancer awareness month I thought it'd be nice to sit down and have a

face-to-face little talk about what's going on with thyroid cancer so you might not know but

everybody has a thyroid gland in the neck it sits in the middle of your neck there's a right side

 on the left side it sits right on top of your trachea and it has a huge function in the body it

helps regulate a lot of your metabolism it helps regulate your thyroid hormone levels it helps

regulate things such as your hair and your nails and your skin and whether you feel hot and

cold and really a sense of your metabolism as well so it has a lot of important functions in the

 body with that being said just like cells everywhere in the body die right cells can also become cancerous and develop a thyroid cancer and when that happens we sometimes have to take

out the thyroid gland so even though the thyroid gland is very important it can be removed

and you can still be okay if it's removed so thyroid cancer is certainly not a rare cancer in the

United States more than 50,000 people per year are diagnosed in the US with thyroid cancer

it's much more common in women than and it's more common in certain age groups as well so

for women it's more common in the 40s and the 50s and for men a little bit older in the 50s

and 60s now anybody can get thyroid cancer it's not some some forms of thyroid cancer are

associated with genetic mutations however it's not necessarily a hereditary cancer and so

really anyone is susceptible unlike a lot of the cancers we have such as breast cancer with

mammographic screening and skin cancer with full body checks and prostate cancer with

prostate exams and colorectal cancer with coat with colonoscopies unlike those cancers

thyroid cancer doesn't really have a screening test there's no test that we can do to monitor

you for thyroid cancer however it is important that you know what some of the symptoms

are associated with it so you know what to look out for so if you feel any kind of nodules your

thyroid gland sits right here right on top of your trachea and your carotid ZAR right here if

you notice any kind of nodules on your neck or if you notice any kind of abnormal feeling in

your neck nodes masses anything like that or if you notice any change in the caliber of your

voice such as hoarseness or if you go to your doctor's office and your doctor feels your neck

and notices something then that's something that really should get checked out by checked

out I mean some basic blood work and a thyroid ultrasound so what your doctor will be looking

 for on the ultrasound is whether you have any nodules now you should know that nodules are

not that uncommon about 50% of the population will have nodules however some nodules

especially as they get larger can harbor cancers and so when they get larger will sometimes

recommend a biopsy or a needle in the nodule of your neck which is done very easily in the

office to take a little piece of the thyroid to look at it under the microscope to help

determine whether it's benign meaning not cancerous or malignant having cancer and if you

do have cancer then it's important to see a thyroid surgeon to see what kind of treatments

you need next one of the things that's important is if you've had radiation to your neck in the

past you are at a higher risk of developing their thyroid cancer so if you've had any kind of

radiation for acne for example or for lymphoma or or if you've been exposed to to spillage

from a nuclear power plant for example then you might have an increased risk of developing

thyroid cancer and in those situations it might be prudent for your doctor to examine your

neck a little bit more frequently to help assess if you have any thyroid cancer it's important

to know that diary cancer if it's found early is a very very very treatable and very curable

form of cancer so when it's found early there are things we can do including surgery and

radioactive iodine ablation that can help treat and cure your cancer so it's important to know

about the symptoms it's important to know about your risk and it's important to discuss these with your doctor. Next What are The Types of Thyroid Cancer ?

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