Early detection of thyroid cancer

Thyroid cancer is easy to detect in the early stages. Get checked immediately if there are abnormalities in the neck such as strange lumps, neck lymph nodes, or a feeling of choking..

Thyroid cancer accounts for 1% of all cancers. Survival rates depend on the stage of cancer, the malignancy of the tumor cells, and the age of the patient.

In recent years, with the development of diagnostic ultrasound, early detection of thyroid cancer has become easier. There are cases where the disease is detected with tumors less than 5 mm in size.

Early stage well-differentiated thyroid cancer has a high cure rate. Therefore, detecting thyroid cancer at an early stage is extremely important because it helps increase the cure rate and limit the sequelae and complications of surgical and radiotherapy treatments.

Thyroid cancer can be cured if detected early. Illustration: 115.

How to detect thyroid cancer early

- Patients need to see an oncologist immediately if they detect abnormalities in the neck such as neck tumors, neck lymph nodes, feeling of choking in the neck...

- When a goiter is accidentally detected through ultrasound or physical examination, the patient needs to immediately see an oncologist or endocrinologist to determine whether it is thyroid cancer or not.

Diagnosis of thyroid cancer

"Thyroid nodules" are tumors in the thyroid gland that can be felt or detected only by thyroid ultrasound with an image that is different from the surrounding normal thyroid tissue. To detect "thyroid nodules", the doctor will perform a clinical examination and evaluate the properties of these thyroid nodules, specifically examining whether there are accompanying neck lymph nodes, exploiting the history and progression of the disease.

After that, the patient is assigned a thyroid color ultrasound to evaluate the nature and number of "thyroid nodules" and detect abnormal neck lymph nodes. When the ultrasound detects one or more "thyroid nodules", there is a possibility of thyroid cancer with a general rate of 4-6.5%.

Next, to classify the groups of causes of the disease, the patient is given a blood test to measure the TSH concentration. Finally, the patient needs to do a "fine needle aspiration" (FNA) test to confirm the diagnosis of thyroid cancer.

How to perform FNA

Under ultrasound guidance, the doctor uses a syringe attached to a very thin needle to draw cells from the tumor and spread these cells on a glass slide for observation under a microscope. The diagnostic ability of FNA is up to 95% accurate if enough samples are taken and the pathologist is experienced.

FNA is indicated for all cases of "thyroid nodules" palpable through examination, "thyroid nodules" measuring 1 cm or larger through ultrasound. If the thyroid nodule is less than 1 cm in size detected through ultrasound, FNA should only be performed when there are suspicious features of malignancy through ultrasound images such as poor echo, solid form, microcalcification, irregular edges... FNA is not indicated in cases where the TSH concentration in the blood is reduced and the thyroid scintigraphy shows hot nodules.

Subjects with "thyroid nodules" have a high rate of thyroid cancer: age less than 30 or older than 60; previous head and neck radiation; family members with thyroid cancer.

Thyroid Cancer Treatment

When the FNA results indicate cancer or suspected cancer, the patient will be given a treatment plan that includes thyroidectomy. Thyroid cancer treatment is a multimodal treatment method, meaning that many treatment methods must be combined together to achieve optimal results such as:

- Thyroidectomy according to oncological principles, with or without neck lymph node dissection.

- Radioactive iodine therapy: Radioactive iodine 131 is introduced into the body to destroy remaining cancer cells.

- Hormone therapy for many years to suppress remaining cancer cells to help reduce the rate of recurrence or slow the time of recurrence.

Depending on the size of the tumor, histological type, status of cervical lymph node metastasis, etc., the surgical method, postoperative endocrine therapy for each patient is different, and the indication for radioactive iodine is also different.

After surgery and radioactive iodine treatment, patients have a regimen of endocrine treatment and close, long-term monitoring to reduce the recurrence rate to the lowest level and bring the patient back to life with health like a normal person.

According to Alobacsi.vn