Thyroid cancer is the commonest endocrine malignancy with more prevalence among
women as compared to men. The number of patients with thyroid cancer is increasing
worldwide but reasons in still unknown. There are mainly four common varieties of
thyroid cancer namely:
Papillary Thyroid cancer
Follicular Thyroid cancer
Medullary Thyroid cancer
Anaplastic Thyroid cancer
History of radiation exposure or family history of thyroid cancer can make patient
more prone for cancer. Most common presentation of thyroid cancer is lump in neck or
lump in thyroid gland. Usually in early stage it does not cause much symptoms, so is
neglected by most in our community. Other symptoms include change in voice,
difficulty in breathing or swallowing or symptoms due to cancer spread in advanced
stages. Primary therapy for most of thyroid cancer is surgery. Completeness of surgery
along with preservation of important structures like parathyroid glands and voice nerve
(RLN & EBSLN) is the standard of care. Post surgery patients with papillary and follicular
variety is usually subjected for radio-iodine scan to see if there is any distant spread of
this tumour. Iodine therapy is reserved for patient who has thyroid tissue remnant or
show any evidence of distant metastasis. Role of chemotherapy or radiotherapy is
limited mainly in cases of anaplastic variety. Thyroid cancer usually have excellent
prognosis ( except varieties like anaplastic etc.)with more than 95% survival rate if
detected in time and treated optimally. After surgery patient has to take thyroxine
hormone for lifelong.
Dr. O. P. Prajapati is the Best Thyroid Doctor in Varanasi and he is doing thyroid surgeries by endoscopic method.