Symptoms Of Thyroid cancer

The symptoms of thyroid cancer are often very rare at the start and can strongly resemble other thyroid disorders:

• swelling in the neck moving with swallowing
• inexplicable hoarseness
• a thickening or nodule of the thyroid gland
• stiffness through airway constriction

People with thyroid cancer also experience the following complaints:

• swallowing, 'a sore throat' feeling, a feeling of swallowing somewhere or the feeling that food is hard to fall or hanging in the esophagus
• a cough, cranial cough, sore throat
• sometimes: neck and headache, intestinal problems, extreme mucus formation, muscle weakness, chest pain, palpitations and increasing fatigue problems

The greatest risk of thyroid cancer is surged to other organs. If this occurs, the prognosis will be much worse and other disease signs will occur depending on the affected organ. If sowing occurs, these can often be found in the lungs, bones or liver.



Thyroid cancer causes

The thyroid cancer causes are not yet clear and many factors can play a role. In the case of thyroid cancer, radioactive radiation seems to play an important role, but also family heredity and many other factors are involved.

An unhealthy lifestyle seems to increase the chance of many types of cancer. Women have 2 to 3 times more risk of thyroid cancer than men and the cancer is more common among whites than other people.

The thyroid gland consists of follicles and C-cells. The follicles produce the hormone thyroxine, while the C cells are responsible for calcitonin hormone production.
Depending on the type of cell that is affected, different types of cancer are distinguished

Thyroid cancer diagnosis

The diagnosis may be suspected by the symptoms of thyroid cancer and swelling of the thyroid gland.

Blood research
In the event of suspected cancer of the thyroid gland, a blood test will be performed to determine the levels of thyroid hormone, TSH, and calcitonin. This can also exclude or demonstrate other thyroid conditions.

Biopsy
If one suspects thyroid cancer, one will take a biopsy. This is a sample of the tissues. With a fine thin needle, the skin will penetrate the thyroid to suck some tissue. This tissue is then evaluated microscopically to detect possible cancers and determine the type of it.

Other
When detecting thyroid cancer, other tests can be performed to determine if there are any sowing. Imaging techniques such as radiography, CT scan, ultrasound and magnetic resonance will then be performed.

Thyroid cancer prognosis

The thyroid cancer prognosis depends on the type of cancer:

Papillary Carcinoma
The forecast is usually good; after treatment, most patients recover.

Follicular Carcinoma
Usually, this cancer is detected in a timely manner and is intervened for irreversible consequences.

Medulla Carcinoma
This cancer is aggressive and sows easy, the prognosis depends strongly on the stage of intervention: if there are metastases, survival time in 5 years is only 25%. In general, the 5-year survival time is 80%. Usually, the cancer is detected in a timely manner.

Anaplastic Carcinoma
Very aggressive cancer which unfortunately almost always fails.

*Image source : Youtube

References :

1. National Cancer Institute
2. Schildklier
3. Kanker.nl