Thyroid cancer
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Thyroid Cancer Main Page |
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Michael Maddaleni, B.S.; Ammu Susheela, M.D. [2]
Overview
Overview
Thyroid cancer refers to any of four kinds of tumors of the thyroid gland; Papillary, follicular, medullary and anaplastic. Papillary and follicular tumors are the most common and usually are benign. They grow slowly, may recur, but are generally not fatal in patients under 45 years of age. Medullary and anaplastic tumors are malignant. Medullary tumors have a good prognosis if restricted to the thyroid gland and a poorer prognosis if metastasis occurs. Anaplastic tumors are fast-growing and respond poorly to therapy. Thyroid nodule are diagnosed by ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration or frequently by thyroidectomy (surgical removal and subsequent histological examination). As the thyroid cancer can uptake iodine, radioactive iodine is a commonly used modality in thyroid carcinomas. However, it is followed by TSH suppression by thyroxine therapy.
Classification
- The following flowchart depicts the classification of thyroid cancer.[1]
| Thyroid cancer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Papillary thyroid carcinoma | Follicular thyroid carcinoma | Medullary thyroid carcinoma | Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma | Primary thyroid lymphoma | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Reference
- ↑ Wells SA, Asa SL, Dralle H, Elisei R, Evans DB, Gagel RF; et al. (2015). "Revised American Thyroid Association guidelines for the management of medullary thyroid carcinoma". Thyroid. 25 (6): 567–610. doi:10.1089/thy.2014.0335. PMC 4490627. PMID 25810047.