Thyroid cancer and its symptoms

The thyroid gland is an endocrine gland shaped like a bow tie that is normally located at the bottom of the neck. The task of the thyroid gland is to produce hormones that are excreted into the bloodstream and then transferred to every tissue in the body. Thyroid hormone helps the body use energy, stay warm and keep the brain, heart, muscles and other organs well functioning.

What are the risk factors for thyroid cancer?

Thyroid cancer is more common for people who are exposed to high doses of radiation, have a family history of thyroid cancer and are over 40 years of age. For most patients, we do not know the specific reason why they develop thyroid cancer.

What are the symptoms of thyroid cancer?

• the most common symptom – lump or swelling may appear on the neck
• sore throat and sometimes pain in the ears
• difficulty swallowing
• difficulty in breathing
• hoarse voice
• frequent cough that is not associated with colds.

Some people may not have any symptoms. The doctor may find a lump or nodule in his throat during a routine examination.

Treatment of thyroid cancer

Thyroid cancer that spreads (metastasizes) outside of the neck area is rare, but can be a serious problem. Surgery and radioactive iodine remain the best way to treat such cancers. For more advanced types of cancer, or if treatment with radioactive iodine is no longer effective, other forms of treatment are needed. External beam radiation directs X-rays precisely to the areas to be treated. It is usually a tumor that is locally recurrent or spreads to bones and other organs.

Thyroid cancer prevention

In most cases thyroid cancer can not be avoided. The best thing you can do is to detect symptoms of thyroid cancer and seek professional help as soon as possible. Providing early medical care can accelerate the return to normal life.

The immune system can help fight cancer

The immune system prevents the body from infection and disease. Some parts of the immune system search for unhealthy cells or something else in the body, some send messages about other cells in the body and others work to infect and destroy microorganisms. When the immune system protects the body from infection and disease, we call it an immune response.