Thyroid Cancer

Overview

The thyroid cancer is the malignant growth in the thyroid gland. The thyroid gland is the small gland in the body which helps the body function normally.

It regulates every aspect of human metabolism. Thyroid cancer is a disease in which one or more solid or fluid-filled lumps called nodules grow in the thyroid gland.

Thyroid Cancer Symptoms

These nodules may or may not be cancerous. The most common types are noncancerous which show no symptoms. But a small percentage are cancerous (malignant), and serious complications are possible due to these types.

Many risk factors are found associated with the development of the thyroid cancer like the age factor as this is common among people between the ages of 25 and 65 years, exposure to radiation in the past, people with a family history of thyroid or a condition called goiter in which the thyroid is enlarged. Women are said to be at high risk than men. People in the Asian countries are at high risk than other people.

If this cancer is detected early the treatment provides a better cure and recovery. Generally many of the cases of thyroid cancer are detected easily in the initial stage. The initial stage thyroid cancer symptoms experienced are lump in front of the neck, base of the neck or anywhere in the neck, sore throat, difficulty in swallowing, cough not related to cold since long and breathing problems.

The goal of thyroid cancer treatments for thyroid cancer is to get rid of the cancer cells in the body. The treatment option depends on age, the type of thyroid cancer, the stage of the cancer, and overall general health of the patient.

There are four major treatments available for patients with thyroid cancer. They are the surgery which includes the removal of cancer from the affected area, radiation therapy using high-dose x-rays or other high-energy rays kills cancer cells or shrinks the tumors, the chemotherapy in which the drugs are used to kill cancer cells and the hormone therapy which uses hormones to inhibit the growth of cancer cells.

Thyroid Cancer Prognosis

The thyroid cancer prognosis is excellent as the majority of the cases are detected at an early stage. Surgery is the best option of treating the thyroid cancer which gives a good recovery chance. As in most cases surgery helps remove majority of the cancer the important thing is any symptom detected should be reported to the doctor for immediate attention and treatment.

Almost all types of thyroid cancers are curable therefore thyroid cancer prognosis is quiet good. In fact, the most common types of thyroid cancer like the papillary and follicular are the most curable. In younger patients, both papillary and follicular cancers can be expected to have better than 97% cure rate if treated appropriately.

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