What Are Causes Thyroid Cancer?

What causes thyroid cancer? Despite much scientific research into the precise cause of thyroid cancer, little is known about it. However, we are increasingly aware of factors that increase the risk of developing thyroid cancer. Although risk factors can contribute to developing thyroid cancer, most of them will not be directly identified as a cause. Some people have multiple risk factors but do not get thyroid cancer, while some others do not have any risk factor but get the disease.

Factors associated with increased risk of thyroid cancer are:

Gender and age
Thyroid cancer occurs almost three times more in women than in men. In women, thyroid cancer generally occurs at a younger age (25-50 years) than in men.
Radioactive radiation
Exposure to radioactive radiation, especially when it occurs in childhood, increases the risk of developing thyroid cancer. This increased risk exists for radioactive radiation used for medical purposes (such as radiotherapy in the head/neck area in cancer) and in radioactive radiation due to, for example, a nuclear disorder such as that in Chernobyl in 1986. For adults, this risk is significantly lowered than for children. An iodine deficiency increases the sensitivity of the thyroid to radioactive radiation.



Heredity
In about 1 in 4 cases of medullary thyroid carcinoma, its origin is due to heredity (including thyroid carcinoma as a result of MEN-2 syndrome).
Also, papillary and follicular thyroid carcinoma appears to be "in the family", but its genetic origin is not known. It is well known that people with Cowden's disease have a significantly increased risk of getting follicular thyroid carcinoma.
The Struma and other thyroid disorders
Some benign thyroid conditions may increase the risk of thyroid cancer (such as struma, adenoma, Hashimoto's disease ).
Iodine deficiency
Insufficient iodine in the daily diet increases the risk of follicular and papillary thyroid carcinoma. In European countries, thyroid disease is rare due to a shortage of iodine: many foodstuffs are added from iodine-based foods (for example, salt, bread). In parts of the world where the supply of iodine in foods is low, an iodine deficiency can occur.
Obesity
Overweight and obesity have been shown to increase the risk of developing a large number of cancers, including thyroid cancer.

Prevention of thyroid cancer
Avoid iodine deficiency (recommended intake of iodinated salt, sea kale), avoid frequent X-ray radiation of the head and neck.

The basis of prevention - Timely treatment of thyroid gland disorders, the timely and systematic flow of routine inspections, especially if you are at risk of the troupe (suffering from other thyroid diseases occurred in the last part of the irradiation areas head and neck for other diseases, in high-risk areas).

After detection of thyroid cancer treatment program discussed. This takes into account both the nature of the tumor and the stage and overall condition of the patient.

Treatment for thyroid cancer
For the treatment of thyroid cancer, surgery is almost always needed. Depending on the type of tumor, the treatment is then completed or is one of the following post-treatment treatments required:

• Treatment with radioactive iodine: only in papillary and follicular thyroid cancer
• external irradiation: only in specific cases and occasionally in metastases
• Targeted Therapy: Only when the cancer is sown

In addition to the above treatments, you can sometimes participate in research trials. For example, you will receive a new treatment or combination of treatments where doctors are doing research. With this medical science research,  doctors or a new treatment test is better than standard treatment.

Most patients with thyroid cancer cure completely after proper treatment. More than 80-90% of patients are still alive 15 years later. However, there are patients at increased risk of tumor recurrence.

*Image source : Health Save Blog

References :

1. Kanker.nl
2. Mymedinform.com
3. Schildklier