Thyroid Cancer Support

Posts Tagged ‘iodine’

The thyroid gland is a small formation at the base of the throat with a major role in the energetic metabolism of the cells. Diseases of the gland appear when the thyroid cells tend to work to fast or to slow and the adjacent symptoms in the body occur. Most of the thyroid conditions are not age related; though, elder persons tend to suffer from more difficult diseases and much more hard to diagnose because of the connected other affections.

Uncontrolled diabetes, bad nutrition, liver problems, heart failure and cancer are some of the conditions that harden the diagnose of thyroid diseases in older persons. Also heparin and drugs for epilepsy, Parkinson, arthritis and aspirin can produce changes in the thyroid testing even in case of a normal functioning gland. Symptoms of the thyroid dysfunction caused by different factors are often mistaken by aging signs and are commonly overviewed.

Although hyperthyroidism can also occur at any age, hypothyroidism occurs more frequent in elderly people. It represents an under-active condition with a lower secretion and release of thyroid hormones. The most common symptoms encountered in hypothyroidism are dry skin and coarse hair, sensation of cold, loss of the eyebrows and lethargy. Elder persons however can also present neurological signs like shaking and psychological effects such as depression. Other medical conditions and signs of the aging process can make the diagnose of thyroid dysfunction even harder.

The standard treatment for hypothyroidism is the administration of a synthetically hormone called thyroxin or levothyroxin that should bring things back to normal. The cure usually lasts for 6-8 weeks before any signs of improvement appear, but the treatment for hypothyroidism is life-long. Periodical examinations are done to check the efficiency of the drugs.

Hyperthyroidism also known as goiter is the reverse condition and evolves usually with changes in the eye area. The tissues of the gland are overactive or the gland goes to a swelling process. In geographical points like Germany or Eastern Europe hyperthyroidism is mainly caused by the deficiency of Iodine in the drinking water.

Most commonly encountered symptoms of an excessive working thyroid are the loss of weight and appetite, flutter of the whole body, heart failure, sweating, staring eyes, depression, lethargy and confusion. The precise diagnose is established after blood testing for the hormone level but doctors must carefully separate a thyroid condition from other diseases or caused by different medications.

The endocrinologist will firstly recommend drugs to rehabilitate the function of the gland but usually the treatment will last the whole life. Surgical removal of the thyroid or destroying the glandular tissue by radioactive Iodine is some of the methods available. Both ways are relatively risk-free; Iodine can occasionally produce pain, tenderness or thyroid swelling. Surgery is appealed at in case of a very large goiter.

Thyroid cancers are more frequent in old persons but can occur at any age in form of glandular nodules. The treatment will consist of surgery, chemotherapy and external radiotherapy.

For more resources about thyroid or even about thyroid cancer please review this pages http://www.thyroid-info-center.com/thyroid-cancer.htm

According to the latest experimental studies, heath physicists have encountered safe methods to use a radioactive protein found in scorpion venom to treat thyroid cancer. The venom of a yellow species of scorpions found in Israel is promising to develop into a revolutionary technique to fight different types of tissues affected by cancer.

The Transmolecular Corporation in Cambridge has successfully obtained in the laboratory a radioactive variant of the venom protein. The new substance is called TM-601 and consists of the radioactive substance Iodine-131 and an artificially obtained venom protein. When the artificial compound is released into the blood, the radioactive waves kill the foreign, cancer cells.

Every year, about 17000 persons suffer from this type of cancer and many of them die within the first months of treatment. The new technique promises a remission of the cancer within the first months, after the radioactive compound has been injected into the body. The patient will require no further chemotherapy or traditional therapeutically radiations. The procedure promises a good improvement of the cancer symptoms and a high rate of surviving.

The phase two of the human trial using the new compound shows safe ways of handling the new treatment, even by injecting higher doses of radiations into the cells than during the first stage experiments.

The physician’s duty is to release on the medical market a both safe and legal product with a high index of success. The doctors prescribing this therapy must also protect the family members and the environment of the patient from the radioactivity of the drug.

During the human testing, a group of several patients receive the medication three times within three weeks, while another group gets the therapy six times in six weeks. All patients receive the same quantity of medicine, meaning 200 MCI in the treatment of thyroid cancer. The results are satisfactory compared to other types of therapy used before.

Research scientists discovered that TM-601 is not being assimilated by other tissues besides the cancer cells. The tissue parts near the tumor also receive an amount of radiation but in a lower rate. Before the treatment, patients are administered with high doses of non-radioactive iodine to prevent the assimilation of the drug by the absorbing thyroid, to block the uptake of Iodine-131. The thyroid gland quickly absorbs iodine in normal circumstances.

A part of the radiations received during the treatment are transmitted by the patient’s body to the family members in the first hours after returning from the hospital. However, studies show that the level of radioactive waves spread by the body is not larger than the ones reflected after traditional radioactive therapy.

For more information about thyroid problems or about thyroid treatment please visit this website http://www.thyroid-info-center.com/