Management of papillary thyroid cancer

Posted by Resident, Master, Doctor Nguyen Thi Hang - Laboratory Department - Vinmec Times City International Hospital

The treatment and understanding of how to manage papillary thyroid cancer will be different from the type and stage of thyroid cancer. Detecting symptoms and stopping them early will help prevent cancer cells from spreading.
The thyroid gland is responsible for heart health, ensuring a normal body temperature and controlling blood calcium levels. It uses iodine to produce hormones (Iodine is a trace element found in certain foods and iodized salt). Whenever the body loses its iodine balance, a variety of health problems can occur.

1.1 What is thyroid cancer? Thyroid cancer, like other cancers, is a disease that occurs when cancer cells form from the parenchyma inside the gland. Common causes of thyroid cancer are: Radiation exposure; Changes in genes from parent to child (inheritance); Family history of thyroid disease or overproduction of hormones....
Symptoms of thyroid cancer include: Problems with breathing and swallowing, swallowing and/or mass in the neck, pain in the pain area and said hoarsely.
There are different types of thyroid cancer, including: papillary (most common), follicular, medullary and aplastic.
Papillary carcinoma ~ 85%; Follicular carcinoma ~ 10%; Hurthle cell carcinoma (Hurthle Cell carcinoma) ~ 2%; Medullary Carcinoma ~ 3%; Anaplastic cancer < 1%; Lymphoma < 1%. 1.2 Diagnosing thyroid cancer As soon as you notice possible symptoms of thyroid cancer, you need to see your doctor right away. Your doctor will order you to perform tests to find cancer cells and diagnose the type of thyroid cancer you are having. Some tests for thyroid cancer that may be ordered include: Laryngoscopy, history examination, physical examination, blood tests, ultrasound and CT scan.
During the examination, if thyroid cancer is suspected, 2 other procedures will be indicated, including: Fine needle aspiration or surgical biopsy. The results of these two tests will tell you exactly if you have thyroid cancer, and if so, what type.
1.3 How is thyroid fine needle aspiration performed? Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) or fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) is usually done in your doctor's office or clinic. Most will be performed by an endocrinologist or radiologist with extensive FNA experience.

The procedure includes the following steps:
The patient is under local anesthesia: (1 small amount of drug) will be injected into the skin above the thyroid nodule (may not need anesthesia); An ultrasound will be used so that the doctor can see the nucleus (or lymph nodes). They make it possible to see the needle entering the nucleus. Your doctor will insert a thin, small, hollow needle directly into the nucleus to draw out a few cells and possibly a few drops of fluid that will enter the syringe. The doctor usually repeats this 2 or more times, taking samples from many different areas of the nucleus. The components in the needle and syringe are then pumped onto a slide and then sent the FNA sample to a laboratory, where a cytopathologist will look at them under a microscope to see if cells are present. These cells look malignant or benign.

Papillary thyroid cancer is the most common type. How papillary thyroid cancer is managed depends on your age, general health, and stage of the cancer. Also, it depends on whether the cancer has spread beyond the thyroid gland.
Features of papillary thyroid cancer are: Usually begins at a young age, is common in women, metastasizes to lymph nodes in the neck and does not often spread beyond the thyroid gland.
2.1 Management of papillary thyroid cancer Some views believe that, once a tumor is detected, it is enough to just remove it. On the contrary, there are also many concerns that there will be some nerve damage during thyroidectomy.
In this regard, the specialist said that: If the patient is young, has no history of exposure to radiation therapy, has no history and the tumor size is 1 cm, it is possible to perform a waist lobectomy. or partial thyroidectomy. However, if the patient is an elderly patient, a total thyroidectomy and lymph node dissection may be performed.
Patients should not be too worried because people can live without a thyroid gland. After surgery, the patient will receive appropriate hormone therapy or thyroid hormone replacement. This means that the patient will take exogenous thyroid hormone for the rest of his life, just needing regular monitoring and testing.

Most thyroid cancer patients have a very high cure rate. In fact, papillary and follicular thyroid cancers are the most curable types. For young patients, the expectation of cure is about 97% with appropriate treatment.
An important survival criterion for any type of thyroid cancer is the need for surgery as radically as possible. Non-radical surgeries can do:
Affect ability to control disease; An additional surgery is required; Increases the risk of broader surgery; The potential for recurrence is high. Currently, early cancer screening is considered a perfect measure in the timely detection and treatment of thyroid cancer in particular and cancers in general. Reduce the cost of treatment and especially reduce the mortality rate in patients. Vinmec International General Hospital always deploys and introduces to customers the Early Cancer Screening Package at Vinmec - Peace of mind to live well to help with gene testing, imaging, testing of biomarkers to detect tumors you early.
Choosing the Early Cancer Screening Package at Vinmec - Peace of mind at Vinmec, customers will get:
Only one gene test can assess the risk of 16 common cancers in both men and women such as: (Lung cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, cervical cancer, stomach cancer, prostate cancer,....) Early detection of early signs of cancer through imaging, endoscopy, and ultrasound. The operation is simple, careful and accurate. A team of well-trained specialists, especially in oncology, are capable of handling cancer cases. With a system of facilities, advanced and modern medical equipment and a team of doctors with deep expertise and experience, it will help the examination and treatment process of patients at Vinmec become faster with High efficiency, save cost and time.

References: All You Need To Know To Manage Papillary Thyroid Cancer - Healthyville. Thehealthyville.com. [Online]