Thyroid Cancer - Symptoms, Causes and Treatment
Thyroid Cancer is the growth of abnormal cells in the thyroid gland. The thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland located in the front part of the neck. This gland secretes hormones that regulate metabolism, growth, body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, weight loss, and more.
There are three types of hormone secreted by the thyroid gland, among others:
- Triiodothyronine (T3) and Thyroxine (T4). Both of these hormones help regulate the body's metabolism. Excess hormones T3 and T4 can make someone become over-active and weight decreased. Conversely, if the second hormone deficiency, then someone will feel weak and will increase in weight.
- Calcitonin. This is a type of hormone that serves to regulate the levels of calcium in the blood and help the process of the formation of strong bones. This hormone is not too have a key role in maintaining healthy because the body also utilizes other ways of controlling the levels of calcium in the blood.
Thyroid cancer is one of the rare diseases. This condition generally occurs in people between the ages of 35-39 years and 70 years of age. Women have thyroid cancer risk three times greater than men. Although the exact cause of thyroid cancer is still unknown, there is a possibility is related to hormonal changes in the woman's reproductive system.
Thyroid cancer is divided into four types, namely:
- Papillary carcinoma. This is the type of thyroid cancer is the most common, which is about 60 percent of the total cases of thyroid cancer, and usually affects women under 40 years of age.
- Follicular carcinoma. About 15 percent of cases of thyroid cancers are of this type. Follicular carcinoma tends to occur in people of advanced age.
- Medullary thyroid carcinoma. This type occurs at approximately 5-8 percent of all cases of thyroid cancer. The difference from other types of medullary thyroid carcinoma are generally influenced by heredity.
- Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. This is a type of cancer of the thyroid is the rarest, however most aggressively. This condition only occurs in 5 percent of all cases of cancer of the thyroid and generally occur at age 60 or over.
Thyroid Cancer Symptoms
In the early stages of thyroid cancer, rarely cause symptoms, even nothing at all. However, if you have already entered the stage of advanced thyroid cancer, often marked by a lump or swelling in the front of the neck and is usually not painful.
There are several other symptoms that appear after cancer entered advanced stages, among them:
- A sore throat.
- Difficulty in swallowing.
- The voice becomes hoarse and does not improve after a few weeks.
- Pain in the neck.
- Swollen lymph nodes in the neck piece.
Not all of the bumps that appear on the thyroid gland caused by thyroid cancer. Most of the swelling of the thyroid gland caused by a condition known as mumps. This condition is caused by hyperthyroidism (too much T3 and T4 hormones) or hypothyroidism (lack the hormones T3 and T4).
Thyroid Cancer Risk Factors
The exact cause of thyroid cancer is still unknown, but there are some factors that can increase the risk of the occurrence of this condition, including:
- Thyroid disorders experience. Anyone has ever experienced thyroid benign diseases, such as inflammation of the thyroid gland or goiter disease, thyroid cancer risk greater than those who have never experienced it.
- Family health history. Genetic disorders who was revealed to be the cause of some cases of thyroid carcinoma medullary. Thyroid cancer risk increases if one has a family ever had cancer.
- Height and weight. Thyroid cancer risk will increase if a person has excess body weight. The risk will also increase in adults with height above the average.
- Exposure to radiation. Radiation from nuclear or radiation from certain medical treatment can increase the risk of thyroid cancer a personal experience, especially if it's radiation on the neck and head.
- Digestive disorders. If someone is experiencing the familial adenomatous polyposis indigestion (FAP), he is more at risk of experiencing a thyroid cancer. FAP is a derivative of the disease is caused by a gene defect.
- Gender. Women have thyroid cancer risk 2-3-fold compared to men. This condition may be related to hormones that are released at a time when women experience menstruation or while being pregnant.
- Acromegaly. This is a rare condition in which the body produces too much growth hormone. This condition causes people who experience acromegaly more at risk of developing cancer of the thyroid.
It is important to remember that people who have one or more risk factors above will not necessarily suffer from thyroid cancer in the future. In many cases, some people who suffer from thyroid cancer also not experiencing the risk factors above.
Diagnosis Of Thyroid Cancer
To diagnose thyroid cancer, the doctor will do a physical examination at the initial stage of the examination. The doctor will also ask about your family medical history and the symptoms experienced by the patient, one of them is hoarseness that failed to disappear.
Some advanced tests can be done to diagnose thyroid cancer are:
- Thyroid function tests. This is a type of blood test to check if there is a disturbance in the function of the thyroid gland, by measuring the levels of thyroid hormones in the blood.
- Fine needle aspiration cytology. In this test, a needle is inserted into a very small lump in the neck to take tissue samples are then examined with a microscope. This test can detect the presence of abnormal cells and cancer cells.
- Scanning. This examination needs to be carried out to ascertain whether cancer that had already spread to appear outside of the thyroid gland. Scanning can be done through a CT scan, ultrasound, or PET (positron emission tomography).
- Test illnesses derivative. The doctor may need to perform genetic examinations on patients to seek the presence of abnormalities in genes that can increase the risk of thyroid cancer medullary.
Thyroid Cancer Treatment
Types of thyroid cancer treatment are highly dependent on the type and stage of cancer suffering. Some types of cancer, such as carcinoma follicular Carcinoma, papillary, and most thyroid carcinoma Medullary, have a better chance to recover. Thyroid cancer types are handled by means of surgical removal of the thyroid gland, and possibly combined with radiotherapy.
The following are some steps to deal with the treatment of thyroid cancer:
- Thyroidectomy. This procedure is performed to remove the thyroid gland, either partially or in its entirety. This procedure depends on the type and size of thyroid cancer, as well as whether it has already spread to other parts of the body. Patients are advised to rest during 2-3 weeks after surgery to avoid activities that provide the load on the part of the neck.
- Hormone replacement therapy. Patients will not be able to produce the hormones that regulate the body's metabolism system after performing the procedure thyroidectomy. Therefore, the patient will require lifelong hormone replacement tablets. Regular blood tests needed to be done to adjust the doses and monitor hormone levels that are right for the body.
- Setting the levels of calcium. Surgical removal of the thyroid gland is often affected parathyroid glands. Parathyroid glands located near the thyroid gland function and set the levels of calcium in the blood. Therefore, the levels of calcium also must continue to watch out for.
- Treatment of radioactive iodine. This treatment is used to destroy cancer cells that are still there and prevent it from appearing again after undergoing surgery. Side effects that may occur due to this procedure are nausea, dry mouth, dry eyes, as well as the senses of taste and smell has changed.
- External radiotherapy. In this procedure, radioactive waves are directed to the affected body part. Treatment is usually done to overcome cancer or thyroid carcinoma of the advanced stage of anaplastic. Period of radiotherapy itself depends on the type of cancer and its development.
- Chemotherapy. This procedure is usually used only to overcome thyroid anaplastic carcinoma that has already spread to other parts of the body. Patients will be given a very powerful drug to kill cancer cells. This treatment cannot cure the cancer is anaplastic completely, but can slow the progression of cancer and help relieve the symptoms of thyroid cancer arising out.
Complications Of Thyroid Cancer
Thyroid cancer who have been treated could resurface, although the thyroid gland has already appointed through a surgical procedure. This could happen because the cancer cells are there already spread outside the thyroid gland. The reappearance of thyroid cancer usually occurs within five years after the operation, but it could also show up decades after the initial handling.
The reappearance of cancer can occur in the lymph nodes in the neck, the thyroid gland is still lagged behind at the time of surgery, or in other parts of the body. To detect signs of recurrence, doctors will recommend that patients do a thyroid scan and blood tests periodically.