Thyroid Cancer Support

Posts Tagged ‘X-Ray’

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.

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Treatments for thyroid cancers involve various procedures and depend on the type and stage of the cancer. Moreover, the procedures used to treat thyroid cancer can cure the affection and improve the life of the patient. Statistics have proved that for the most common forms of papillary and papillary follicular thyroid cancer the 5 and 10 year survival rates are in excess of 95%.

To begin with, a common procedure is the external radiation therapy or x-ray radiation and it is usually used when the thyroid cancer cannot be totally removed. X-ray radiation is produced from an external source by cobalt beam and is prescribed in small doses over a 4 to 6 week interval. It is important to note that this procedure may have certain side effects such as formations of small blood vessels and pigment darkening of the skin.

Secondly, another common procedure is the radioactive iodine therapy, a special therapy that is used post-operatively. In addition to this, radioactive iodine therapy is not a hard procedure but for patients who suffer froma severe form of thyroid cancer and need a high dose of radiation, isolation in the hospital may be required. Radioactive iodine is usually administered in capsules or liquid and in order to have an important result, thyroid replacement (tablets) are withheld during this time. Even though patients may face certain side effects as pains, discomfort, the thyroid replacement helps considerably and moreover it has been considered that TSH injections have not had to stop their thyroid tablets. The treatment that includes radioactive iodine is quite safe and in many cases can be repeated in order to heal the thyroid cancer that has come back again. On the other hand, this type of therapy may produce certain insignificant side effects such as transient neck discomfort, alteration in taste and also decreased saliva formation.

Thirdly, after following surgery and radioactive iodine, the next step is the administration of thyroid hormone pills. Thyroid hormone have the role to ensure a proper metabolism and also stops the recurrence of the tumor by suppressing the pituitary hormone, thyrotropin (TSH) which is responsible for the cancer appereance. In addition, patients who follow this treatment are treated with dosages which are good enough to mantain the serum TSH level below normal in order to prevent the cancer. Much more, patients should visit regularly the doctor in order to be examined and perform various tests that can show if the patient is completely cured or the disease tends to develop again. Furthermore, chest x-ray and neck ultrasound may be required in order to find out if the cancer has not persisted or recurred.

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