What is thyroid cancer?
The thyroid is a small butterfly-shaped gland located in the front part of the neck. In this video, cancer specialist Dr. Deborah Axelrod talks about the different types of thyroid cancers and who is at risk for getting them.
Transcript
Thyroid cancer is an extremely treatable and curable cancer. [DOWNTEMPO MUSIC]
There are different types of thyroid cancer. There's papillary, which is the most common. 80% of all thyroid cancers are papillary cancers.
They usually respond after surgery to radioactive iodine and have an excellent prognosis.
A small percentage of thyroid cancers are follicular cancers, and follicular cancers tend to spread in the blood,
whereas papillary tends to spread more lymphatic. And then more uncommonly is anaplastic cancer,
which does not have as good a prognosis as papillary and follicular cancer. It's rare to have any type of symptoms from thyroid cancer.
So usually it's picked up in a lump in the neck. Who is at risk for thyroid cancer? Well, most people who have thyroid cancer,
it occurs between the ages of 20 and 55. And women are two to three times more likely to have thyroid cancer than men.
Why? Well, there are some that are looking into risk factors based on estrogen exposure.
However, there is no direct correlation to that. But there is research being done about that. People who have been exposed to radiation
used to radiate people for thymus, persistent thymus, for acne, even tuberculosis, Hodgkin's disease, people
who had mantle radiation, they're at increased risk for the development of thyroid cancer and need to be screened.
You need to tell your physician that you have been exposed to radiation. Also, there are forms of thyroid cancer
that are genetic, that can run in families. There are different types of cancers such as medullary cancer of the thyroid.
If you find that you have a family member with thyroid cancer, you should bring that to the attention of your physician, particularly if they're young in onset
and if it runs in more than one family member. [DOWNTEMPO MUSIC] [AUDIO LOGO]
cancer
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