THYROID CANCER
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Most thyroid cancers are very curable.
In fact, the most common types of thyroid cancer (papillary and
follicular) are the most curable. In younger patients, both
papillary and follicular cancers can be expected to have better than
95% cure rate if treated appropriately. Both papillary and
follicular cancers are typically treated with complete removal of
the lobe of the thyroid which harbors the cancer, PLUS, removal of
most or all of the other side.
Medullary cancer of the thyroid is significantly less common, but
has a worse prognosis. Medullary cancers tend to spread to large
numbers of lymph nodes very early on, and therefore requires a much
more aggressive operation than does the more localized cancers such
as papillary and follicular. This cancer requires complete thyroid
removal PLUS a dissection to remove the lymph nodes of the front and
sides of the neck.
The least common type of thyroid cancer is anaplastic which has a
very poor prognosis...it tends to be found after it has spread and
is not cured in most cases. Often an operation cannot remove all the
tumor. |
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