Thyroid Cancer
Overview
When abnormal cells start to grow in the thyroid gland, it leads to thyroid cancer. Unlike other cancer types, thyroid cancer is often detected in its early stage and can be treated well in time by a leading cancer specialist in India.
Thyroid cancer causes various symptoms that can’t be easily ignored by the patient as any other discomfort. Some of the significant thyroid cancer symptoms are:
- Most commonly, a lump or a bulge in the neck
- Difficulty in swallowing
- Breathing difficulty often with a wheezing sound while breathing
- Change in voice or hoarseness in voice
- Irritating cough without any symptom of cold or other reason
There are various types of Thyroid Cancers:
- Papillary Thyroid Cancer - Papillary thyroid cancer is the commonest type of thyroid cancer. It is common in children and women. Previous exposure to radiation can be a cause. Papillary thyroid cancer is usually due to environmental causes and is not inherited. It is called as a well-differentiated thyroid cancer and has excellent cure rates.
- Follicular Thyroid Cancer - Follicular thyroid cancer is the second commonest type of cancer from the thyroid. It is also a type of well-behaved thyroid cancer but with a slightly higher risk of spread than papillary cancer of thyroid.
- Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer - Anaplastic thyroid cancer is one of the more aggressive types of thyroid cancers. It is often seen in patients who have had a thyroid swelling for a long period of type. It tends to spread fast both locally and to distant organs.
- Medullary Thyroid Cancer - Medullar thyroid cancer is a specialized type of thyroid cancer that is hereditary in many patients. Some of the cases occur in young children. It can be treated well with adequate surgery.
Before treating thyroid cancer, there are a few things that are taken into consideration. Type of cancer, extent of disease (stage) along with the age of patient are the major things that determine how the doctors would go about the treatment. Following are the thyroid cancer treatment options available in India:
- Surgery - For most of the cases, surgery is a most important treatment recommended for thyroid cancer. In most patients, removal of the whole thyroid or total thyroidectomy is the surgery of choice. In some patient with very arly disease, removal of half of the thyroid (hemithyroidectomy) may be sufficient. Thyroid surgery is a specialized procedure in while some nerves (recurrent laryngeal nerves) and parathyroid glands have to be saves to ensure good long term quality of life. In expert hands, it is a very safe and effective surgery.
- Radioactive Iodine Treatment - Radioactive Iodine scanning and treatment is an essential part of thyroid cancer treatment after surgery for well differentiated thyroid cancers. The process is started within one month of surgery and can be repeated at intervals depending upon the needs of the patient. While waiting for the scan, patients have to stop thyroid replacement medicine that leads to symptoms such as weakness, fatigue etc. There is an alternative approach using thyroid stimulation and scanning that can avoid such symptoms.
- Thyroid Hormone Therapy - Thyroid hormone therapy is a critical component of treatment in thyroid cancer. It is mandatory whenever thyroid gland has been removed. Further, the dose of drugs is adjusted to reduce the level of TSH in the body and this helps in cancer control and prevents regrowth of cancer cells.
- Chemotherapy - In Chemotherapy, anti-cancer drugs are made to enter the patient’s body by injecting them into a vein or muscle. With the help of this treatment, the drug flows throughout the body, destroying cancer cells. It is used mostly during the advanced stages of cancer, especially anaplastic cancer of thyroid.
- Radiation Therapy - While radioiodine therapy takes care of most of the radiation needs, external radiation (using linear accelerator) is useful in many cases of thyroid cancer when radio-iodine uptake is not good.
Thyroid cancer patients have excellent quality of life after treatment. This is very important as most thyroid cancer patients survive very long and have very high cure rates. There are periods when thyroid hormone is stopped for scanning that some discomfort may be there. However, specialists of the best thyroid cancer hospital in India suggest that if some element of anxiety is perceived, then testing is required.
Like all cancers, regular follow up care is important in thyroid cancer also. After completion of treatment, patient should see the doctor every 6 months initially. Regular examination, testing to make sure that dose of thyroid hormone replacement is adequate and scanning with radioiodine are important parts of follow up. With proper treatment and regular follow up, survival rates for well differentiated thyroid cancer are among the highest in all cancers.
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