Thyroid Cancer Support

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There are tests and procedures that are used to determine whether one has thyroid cancer. They include:

A physical exam – You can feel your neck area for lumps and swelling.

Blood tests – TSH or thyroid-stimulating hormone levels can be measured. This reveals useful information in reference to a prognosis.

Needle biopsy – This is the means of removing cells from the thyroid gland and examining these cells using a microscope to find the cancer.

Imaging tests – These tests include ultrasound of the neck area to find swollen or enlarged lymph nodes.

Treatments And Drugs

Any treatment of thyroid cancer will depend on the type of cancer one has and the stage it is in. Your overall health and particular preferences will also affect the treatment received or recommended.

Surgery

There are operations used to treat cancer. Having an operation is one option usually taken by people already at risk. Such surgery could consist of:

Removing the thyroid (or a part of it). This procedure is referred to as thyroidectomy. Surgery for removing the entire thyroid gland is quite common for treating thyroid cancer. In many instances, the surgeon will leave small rims of thyroid tissue around parathyroid glands to reduce any risk of damage to parathyroid.

Removal of Lymph Nodes. When removing the thyroid gland, enlarged lymph nodes of the neck may be included in that removal. These can be tested for cancer cells.

This type of surgery is performed by making an incision into the skin on the base of the neck. There are risks of infection and bleeding associated with thyroid surgery. There can also be damage to the parathyroid glands during the course of surgery. This will cause low calcium levels in the body. Surgery of the thyroid gland also carries the risk of damage to nerves connected to the vocal cords. Damage to these nerves can cause paralysis of the vocal cords, hoarseness, or difficulty in breathing.

Hormone Therapy

Following thyroid cancer surgery, you may have to take thyroid hormone medication for life. These medications include levothyroxine such as in Levothroid, Synthroid, etc. There are two benefits to hormone therapy. One, it supplies missing hormones your thyroid would normally produce. The second benefit is that the hormone therapy suppresses the production of thyroid-stimulating hormone or TSH in the pituitary gland. Since high levels of TSH could possibly stimulate any remaining cancer cells to grow, the second benefit mentioned is very important.

There will be appointments set for you to get blood tests done to check your thyroid hormone levels every few months. Your doctor may require that this be continually done until your doctor finds the appropriate dosage for your specific case.

Radioactive Iodine

This form of thyroid cancer treatment uses large doses of a radioactive form of iodine. Radioactive iodine treatments are usually conducted after thyroidectomy. The purpose is to destroy any remaining healthy thyroid tissue and any microscopic areas of thyroid cancer that were missed during the surgery. Radioactive iodine treatment is also used when cancer recurs after treatment or if the cancer spreads to other parts of the body.

Radioactive iodine treatment can be administered in capsule form or liquid. This radioactive iodine is taken up by the thyroid cells or thyroid cancer cells. This ensures that there is a very low risk of harming the other cells in the body.

There are side effects to this treatment. These side effects include:

Nausea Drying of eyes Dryness in mouth Changes in sense of smell or taste Pain in neck or chest (where thyroid cancer may have spread)

In the first couple of days after treatment, the radioactive iodine leaves your body through the urine. You should take precautions and make sure that no one you come in contact with is exposed to this radiation. Pay particular attention to your proximity to pregnant women and children. Your physician may in fact provide specific guidance in this area.

External Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy can be conducted externally. It involves the use of a machine that points energy beams at targeted areas on the body. The patient lies on a table as still as possible while the machine moves around areas of the body. This treatment is only administered for a few minutes at a time. It can go on for several weeks with treatments administered daily.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is a form of treatment that utilizes chemicals to destroy cancer cells. Chemotherapy is usually administered intravenously. The chemicals in the drug used in chemotherapy travel through the entire body, destroying growing cancer cells rapidly.

Clinical Trials

Clinical trials are studies conducted to find treatments for illnesses. They often involve trying out a newly discovered form of treatment or drug to test its effectiveness. It is widely used for new cancer treatments or new ways to use existing cancer treatments. The advantage of volunteering for a clinical trial is that it provides you with the opportunity to try the latest options in cancer treatment. However, clinical trials do not guarantee a cure. If you tried everything else, this may be an option for you. Your physician can tell you if you are eligible to enroll in a clinical trial. These trials usually have specific requirements that the patients needs to satisfy such as pre-existing health conditions. Discuss the risks and benefits of enrolling in a trial with your physician.

Thyroid cancer: Thyroid cancer occurs in the thyroid gland. Thyroid gland is useful in producing two cells, follicular cells and C cells. Follicular cells produce thyroid hormone to control the effect of heart rate, energy levels and body temperature and C cells control the level of calcium in the body by producing calcitonin hormone. Thyroid cancer blocks the production of this hormone by producing cancer cells in the thyroid glands.
Thyroid cancer is defined as the disorder in the life cycle of thyroid gland cells. This occurs due to the unusual growth of the thyroid cells without controlling limit. These cancer cells move from original state to distant state and causes destruction to adjacent body tissues by the spreading of uncontrolled cells through blood or lymph.

Thyroid cancer is a combination of several cancers with different types of causes, symptoms and treatments. This cancer is of three types, in which abnormal growth of cells is common in all of them. The normal cells are the basic unit of life, they grow and divide into more cells when the body requires them. These cells forms the tissues and then organs, they are the building blocks of the body system. If there is an abnormal growth and division of cells without any controlling limit, then it results in forming tumor (excess tissue) in the body.

Tumors are of two types, they are as follows:

• Benign tumor
• Malignant tumor

Benign tumor: This tumor is not cancerous. They can be treated easily. They don’t spread to other parts of the body.

Malignant tumor: This tumor is cancerous, they causes damage to the adjacent organs by spreading the cancer cells at high rate. The cells in this tumor invade the distant organs and forms new tumors through blood flow or by lymphatic system. The new tumor has the same characteristic features of the primary tumor. For example, if the thyroid cancer spreads to the lungs, the cancer cells in the lungs are actually belonging to the thyroid cancer cells but not to the lung cancer cells. Then this disease is called as metastatic Thyroid cancer.

Types of Thyroid cancer: There are three main types of thyroid cancer.
• Papillary and follicular thyroid cancers: This disease grows slowly. This disease occurs in the follicular cells. So detection of this disease in the early stages can be cured successfully by surgery treatment. About 80 to 90 cases of thyroid cancer cases are related to this papillary and follicular thyroid cancer.

• Medullary thyroid cancer: This cancer is easy to control because it grows slowly. This cancer occurs in the C cells and not in follicular cells. About 5 to 10 percent cancer cases are related to medullary thyroid cancer.

• Anaplastic thyroid cancer: This cancer is very rare one, only 1 to 2 percent of cancer cases are related to anaplastic thyroid cancer. This cancer occurs in follicular cells .This cancer is not easy to control and identify because  this cancer cells grow rapidly and quickly.

Causes of thyroid cancer: Till now no one knows the exact reason for the causes of this cancer, but the risk factors for this thyroid cancer are identified.

Risk factors for thyroid cancer:

• Smoking: Smoking increases the risk factor for causing lung cancer and thyroid cancer. Due to intake of nicotine content for longer time there will chances in the failure of working system of stem cells. So, please avoid smoking to reduce the risk factors.

• Radiation: Due to excess radiations to the body, the risk factors for leukemia increases. Radiations like diagnose X-rays or UV rays increase the risk factors.

• Family history of thyroid cancer: Family history of cancer also plays a key role in increasing the risk factors. So go for regular screening to diagnose the disease.

• Age: people with above 40 years of age are more likely to face this risk factor for thyroid cancer.

• Gender: Woman has 3 to 4 times higher chances of risk factors for thyroid cancer.

• Less iodine in the diet: Thyroid gland requires iodine to produce thyroid hormone, due to less intake of iodine the risk factors for thyroid cancer increases.

Symptoms and signs of thyroid cancer:

• Difficult in breathing and swallowing
• Formation of lump nears Adam’s apple
• Hoarseness
• Pain in the throat

Many of the above mentioned symptoms are not due to cancer but to some infection causes. If you find any of these symptoms lasts for longer time please report to your health care provider to diagnose the problem.

Treatment methods for Thyroid cancer: Generally for every cancer treatment following factors are considered like age, health condition and the stage of the cancer. By considering these factors treatment is carried.

Surgery: Surgery is the most common available treatment for removing cancer cells. Surgery is carried to remove the thyroid tumor. Surgery can be carried in the early stages of the tumor occurrence. Surgery is taken place only if the cancer is located in only one part of the body. During the surgery process the damaged lymph nodes are also removed along with the thyroid tumor.

The surgery process is carried in two ways they are:

• Total thyroidectomy: The total removal process of thyroid gland is called as total thyroidectomy. By making small incisions, the thyroid is removed completely along with the lymph nodes if necessary, because to stop the spreading of the disease to other parts of the body. People will receive external radiation therapy and radioactive iodine therapy after having this total thyroidectomy. During this process some head and neck tissues will also be removed.

• Lobectomy: This surgery is given for the people who are facing Papillary and follicular thyroid cancers. In this process the cancerous lobe module is removed along with the nearby lymph nodes. People having this surgery will receive radioactive iodine therapy and additional incision surgery to remove the remaining thyroid tissue.

Radioactive iodine therapy: Radioactive iodine therapy uses radio active I-131 drug to kill cancer cells in the neck. This I-131 drug is given only in the form of pill or liquid through mouth with fewer doses. People facing medullary thyroid cancer and anaplastic thyroid cancer doesn’t need this treatment.

Hormone treatment: Hormonal therapy can be useful to cure and control the endometruim cancer cells from growth. Hormonal therapy process changes the level of endometruim hormones in the body and blocks the hormones from affecting from cancer cells.

Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy is one of the treatments useful in killing cancer causing cells by the usage of drugs. This treatment process is carried by either pills or through intravascular injections. The anti-cancer drug enters into the bloodstream and travels towards the damaged tissues and destroys the cancer cells.
Chemotherapeutic drugs attacks the cancer cells by stopping their unusual growth. The nature of this thyroid cancer cells were brought to the normal condition by controlling the divisibility of the cells. This cancer chemotherapy drug can be given at either clinic or at home. The usage of this drug can be daily, weekly or monthly depending on the stage of the cancer and body immune system. Chemotherapy treatment is given by considering the following basis like age, gender, drug toxicity and body weight. The dosage and usability should be carried under proper supervision.

Radiotherapy: This treatment is based on the extent of the disease. Radiotherapy is a useful process helps in removing thyroid cancer cells by using high intensity x-rays. These high energy x-rays are aimed at the thyroid tumor to destroy the cancer cells .This process also causes damage to the normal cells for its side effects. So, external radiation therapy is used to treat this thyroid cancer with fewer side effects.
• External radiation therapy: External radiation therapy process is carried out from outside the body. The powerful x-ray beams are aimed at the effected area from outside the body and destroy the cancer causing cells permanently without re-occurrence.

• Internal radiations: High intensity X-ray beams are passed into the body by making some small incisions in the bone area. This treatment gives better results than the external radiation therapy.

Thyroid cancer is referred as malignant cancer. Treatment methods for this cancer involve surgery, chemotherapy, external radiotherapy and radioactive iodine. Thyroid cancer can be cured successfully only in the starting stage of its occurrence.