Thyroid Cancer Support

Posts Tagged ‘procedure’

First thing that comes to mind is: what is the thyroid gland and why do we need it for? Well, the thyroid is part of the endocrine glands and it’s purpose is to produce hormones, thyroid hormones. They are of essential importance to the body because through their help our body functions stay normal. These hormones have to role to regulate the way in which a person’s body carries on the important functions.

It is situated in the lower part of the neck, and in normal conditions, this gland cannot be felt. It consists of two lobes, a left and a right one, joined together by the isthmus. Other endocrine glands are the pituitary, the parathyroid, the pancreas, the ovaries and the adrenal glands.

As i have said before, a normal thyroid gland cannot be seen or felt. So if at one point, a person can feel a lump on their neck, that should be a sign of thyroid problems. Lumps must immediately be evaluated by a doctor, for they might be cancerous. Some of them are fast growing other develop in a slower way.

People who had any kind of radiotherapy in the neck area are more exposed to the threat of thyroid cancer.But not all diseases of the thyroid can be detected through enlargement of this gland. More common problems could be the production of more hormones than necessary, or even less. In these cases, there could exist an enlargement of the gland, but not in all cases.

To detect a thyroid problem, such as an abnormal function of the gland or a mass, one must see a doctor. In these cases, patients are asked about their medical history and given a physical exam as well. The first thing a doctordoes is to examine the thyroid galnd, by asking you to lift the chin, and even swallow during the examination. This is only a preliminary test. Others soon come, such as: an ultrasound exam of the neck, a radioactive scan of the thyroid, blood tests, biopsies and x-rays or other scans like MRI.

One of the procedures listed above is the biopsy, in medical terms fine needle aspiration. For more concludent results, doctors insert a needle into the lump to take tissue samples. More than one intervention of this matter may be necessary, but the procedure is almost without pain and there are no complications. This test tells if the lump is cancerous or not.

There are also diferent ways in treating thyroid gland problems, depending on the problem. We shall talk about them in the follow up of this article.

For more info regarding thyroid cancer please check http://www.thyroid-info-center.com/thyroid-symptoms.htm or http://www.thyroid-info-center.com/

Thyroid cancer is not a common disease, can occur to anyone and even though it requires an adequate treatment, unlike other types of cancer thr thyroid one can be cured most of the times. Although, thyroid cancers are more common in females, males tend to have a greater risk than females for cancer occurring.

Moreover, thyroid cancer includes many types of cancers, the most common types are papillary, follicular or mixed papillary and follicular forms and on the other hand, the less common types that affect the thyroid are medullary cancer, anaplastic cancer and lymphoma. In addition to this, unlike other types of thyroid cancer, medullary thyroid cancer is a severe form which in many cases may involve other parts of the body, such as endocrine glands, pituitary, adrenal, pancreas and parathyroid glands, an involvement which is known as Multiple endocrine neoplastia syndrome. It is important to note that even though this thype of cancer is quite unusual to be transmitetted, patients with medullary cancer should ensure that family memebers will make some tests in order to be sure that they aren not in danger.

Furthermore, specialists have discovered that thyroid cancer can occur due to certain factors. For example, x-ray treatments that used to be very popular a few years ago and were used to treat certain affections such as acne, blood vessel tumors of the face, enlarged thymus, sore throat. chronic coughs and even excess facial hair are no longer performed due to their negative effect for the thyroid gland which tends to be very sensitive at radiations. Moreover, an important contributing factor for the occurence of thyroid cancer is the prolonged exposure to head and neck irradiation in childhood and even adulthood.

Treatments for thyroid cancers are various and depend on the stage and type of thyroid cancer of the patient. For instance a first step is the confirmation of a thyroid nodule is present and involves the usage of scanning and ultrasound procedures. Moreover a better procedure for diagnose the patient which is suspected of thyroid cancer is a fine needle aspiration biopsy. Even though many surgeons consider that it is enough to remove just the affected part of the thyroidgland, it has been considered that a whole removal of the gland may help more and also will prevent a possible recurrence of the cancer. Although a Thyroidectomy is an efficient preocedure, the risks that involves can be very severe (deficiency in calcium by the inadvertent removal of nearby parathyroid glands and in some cases the damaging of the vocal cord). Much more when the cancer tends to spread from the thyroid glands to lymph nodes nearby the neck, a surgery called neck dissection is necessary in order to remove the tumor.

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