What is Thyroid Cancer? – Health Topics

Aru Panwar, MD — Head and Neck Oncologist, Methodist Estabrook Cancer Center in Omaha, Nebraska.
Learn more about Dr. Aru Panwar or find another provider on http://www.mhsdoctors.com.

TRANSCRIPT:
Thyroid cancer is one of the common type of cancers that are seen in the United States, amongst many cancers that we encounter. It is one of the ones that incidence is rising still. Fortunately, many of the thyroid cancers are well behaved cancers and I use that word very carefully because with appropriate treatment cure and long term productive life is very much in sight. So, we see a lot of patients who get identified with thyroid nodules. These are lumps that may form on the thyroid gland. Fortunately, a vast majority of those nodules are benign or noncancerous but some can be cancerous. In those circumstances we carefully choose which patients would require surgery and following surgery a minority of patients may require additional treatment a form of treatment called radioactive iodine which is a pill form of treatment but generally most of our patients tend to do very well. They live long productive healthy happy lives and that's our goal.

So, the thyroid gland is a butterfly shaped organ that lives in the front part of the neck. It straddles the windpipe. It has two lobes. The right side on the left side. It produces hormones that regulate metabolism and hormones that interact with a wide variety of other organ systems disturbances of Thyroid hormones can occur even without nodules or without cancers. Those are often medically treated those conditions disturbances of Thyroid hormone can lead to a wide variety of symptoms which can really span from very innocuous or very trivial issues related to skin abnormalities, nail or hair abnormalities, to more serious conditions which relate to how the heart functions and how patients have mental clarity. And other similar things.

Fortunately, most patients who have thyroid surgery, depending on the extent of the surgery, if they require Thyroid hormone replacement can be very well treated by way of pill form of hormone therapy. It is usually one pill that they take every morning. It is well tolerated. Labs can be checked periodically but not very often. Once the Thyroid hormone level has been in a fairly steady state then the lab checks may not be more frequently than six or 12 months. So patients generally do well with those medications.

Most patients who receive a Thyroidectomy are brought into the hospital on the day of surgery they undergo surgery and then subsequently are observed for a few hours in a short stay area and subsequently they're able to go home the same day. We encourage them to get up out of bed and sit in a chair walk around normally. There are there is no requirement for bed rest. Patients do not usually have any restrictions in terms of their speech or in terms of swallowing. They can be on a normal diet afterwards. They usually don't require much in terms of pain medications. We've learned that most patients would have good pain control with medications such as Tylenol or ibuprofen and use of ice packs. So, most patients don't even require narcotic medications. They get back to their routine lives fairly quickly. We usually don't use any drain tubes; the incisions are closed with dissolving stitches and some superglue-like-material; patients can usually shower the next day. They don't have to apply any bandages and generally they bounce back pretty quickly.

There are some minor precautions that we recommend. For example, just because if you have a neck incision and it's a little stiff and sore may be driving and turning quickly to look at the blindspot may not be easy to do. So, I usually tell my patients that they may exercise caution before the first week, in terms of driving. We usually advise them not to do any heavy lifting for two weeks. We expect and encourage them to return to their routine lives pretty quickly.

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  Thyroid Cancer