Posts Tagged ‘Thyroid cancer’

Goitre and Thyroid Cancer – Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

Thyroid is a butterfly shaped gland at the base of your neck and below Adam’s Apple and close to the collar bones. Thyroid secretes hormones T3 which is called thyroxine and T4 which is called triidothyronine. They control how fast and efficiently cells convert nutrients into energy. Thyroid gland is controlled by pituitary gland and it produces a thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH).

GOITRE – ENLARGED THYROID GLAND

The enlargement of thyroid gland is called goitre. It keeps on producing normal levels of thyroid hormones.
Symptoms include swelling in the neck. It causes cough, suffocating feeling during sleep and food stuck in throat.
The causes of goitre include an iodine deficient diet and an increased TSH which senses the decreased hormones produced by thyroid gland and turns on the heat. This stimulation causes the thyroid gland to enlarge.
The treatment for small to moderate sized goitre is done by oral thyroid hormones which reduces the production of TSH and stabilizes the gland size.
For large sized goitre, surgery may be needed which compresses the wind pipe and food pipe or if there is a suspicion of malignancy.

THYROID CANCER

It is the malignant tumor of the gland and is the most common malignancy of the endocrine system. It occurs three times more common in women and it is not age specific.
The symptoms for thyroid cancer include a painless solid lump in front of your neck which could be diagnosed during a physical examination.
The causes of thyroid cancer are unknown but risk factors include genes, exposure to environmental radiation or radiation therapy of neck, head or chest.
The diagnosis of thyroid cancer is done through blood tests, ultrasound of thyroid gland and biopsy of nodule.
The treatment for thyroid cancer involves surgery in which thyroid gland is removed and after sometime medication is given to replace thyroid hormone for life.

Avoid:
- food containing iodine.
- dairy products.
- eggs.
- seafood.
- cured meats.
- baker’s bread.
- soy.
Thyroid diseases are easily diagnosed and treated yet they are often ignored.

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Papillary Cancer – The Most Common Thyroid Cancer

- Papillary carcinoma is a relatively common well-differentiated thyroid cancer.
- Papillary/follicular carcinoma must be considered a variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma.
- Papillary carcinoma may be overtly or minimally invasive. In fact, these tumors may spread easily to other organs.
- Papillary tumors have a propensity to invade lymphatics but are less likely to invade blood vessels.
- Papillary carcinoma typically arises as an irregular, solid or cystic mass that arises from otherwise normal thyroid tissue.
- About 75 – 85% of all thyroid cancers diagnosed in the United States are papillary carcinoma.
- The cause of this cancer is unknown. A genetic defect may be involved. High-dose external radiation to the neck increases the risk of developing thyroid cancer.

Treatment for Papillary Cancer
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Surgery

With this type of thyroid cancer treatment, part or all of the thyroid gland is removed. Additionally, if any nearby lymph nodes have been affected by the cancer, they too may be removed. Following this type of thyroid cancer treatment, individuals will begin taking thyroid hormone pills to replace the thyroid hormones that used to be secreted by the thyroid gland which also serves to suppress re-growth of the thyroid cancer.
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Chemotherapy

Used almost exclusively as a thyroid cancer treatment for anaplastic cancer, chemotherapy is the use of anticancer drugs to kill malignant (or cancerous) cells.
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Radioactive iodine therapy

Usually employed as a follow-up thyroid cancer treatment to surgery, patients ingest a measured amount of radioactive iodine. This iodine then usually kills any thyroid tissue that was unable to be removed during the surgical procedure.
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External radiation

External radiation is a thyroid cancer treatment option that involves directing radiation at residual tumor cells from an outside radiation source to help shrink or kill these cells. In patients for whom surgery may not be feasible, external radiation is usually the next preferred option.

How is staging determined for thyroid cancer?

If the diagnosis is thyroid cancer, the doctor needs to know the stage, or extent, of the disease to plan the best treatment. Staging is a careful attempt to learn whether the cancer has spread and, if so, to what parts of the body.
Staging is based on the results of the physical exam, biopsy, and imaging tests, ultrasound, CT scan, MRI, chest x-ray, and/or nuclear medicine scans.
The TNM method is the most universally used staging method and applies to both papillary and follicular thyroid cancers.
- T indicates the size of the main (primary) tumor and whether it has grown into nearby areas.
- N describes the extent of spread to nearby (regional) lymph nodes. Lymph nodes are small bean-shaped collections of immune system cells that are important in fighting infections. Cells from thyroid cancers can travel to lymph nodes in the neck and chest areas.
- M indicates whether the cancer has spread (metastasized) to other organs of the body. If there is distant metastases, M = 1, if the cancer has not spread outside of the neck region, M = 0.

Based on these three categories, the cancer is assigned a Stage of 1, 2, 3 or 4. Stage 1 is the least advanced form of cancer with the best prognosis, and Stage 4 is the most advanced category.