Examples Of Thyroid Cancer In The Fault In Our Stars

803 Words2 Pages

Shreen Sawhney
Mrs. Leason
English Period 9-11
April 4, 2014

Thyroid cancer is one of the main conflicts in John Green’s novel, The Fault in Our Stars. Hazel Grace, the protagonist, has papillary thyroid cancer that has metastasized to the lungs. Her disease precludes her from carrying a healthy relationship with her love interest, Augustus Waters, and the reader sees how difficult it is to live a normal life with such a life-threatening disease as cancer. There are many different causes as to why people contract thyroid cancer even though it only accounts for 1% of all cancer in the United States (Sarge 1). Furthermore, there are four subtypes of thyroid cancer with different intensities: papillary, follicular, medullary, and anaplastic. Each type of thyroid cancer comes with a different type of treatment care such as chemotherapy, thyroidectomies, and hormone therapy (Sarge 2).
Thyroid cancer is one of the more uncommon types of cancers in the United States. This type of cancer is three times more likely to affect women rather than men (Sarge 1). Even though, it is a rare type of cancer to contract, women are at a higher risk to contract or have already contracted thyroid cancer. In the novel, Hazel Grace, the main character, is a teenage female who has papillary cancer that has metastasized to the lungs. Thyroid cancer is most commonly found in people over the age of 30 (Petit 1). Only a small portion of cancers are diagnosed a year. According to recent survey, about 11,000 cases of thyroid cancer are diagnosed a year, which is not a great deal when compared to other cancers (Thyroid Cancer 1). In addition to this cancer being more prevalent in women, there are certain ethnic groups that have a greater chance of having this...

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...r to tackle. This type of cancer has the ability to spread quickly and the farther that it hits, the harder it can be overcome if at all.” This form of thyroid cancer often occurs in the inherited genetic disorder multiple endocrine neoplasia” (Thyroid Cancer 2). People who have inherited multiple endocrine neoplasia will most likely have medullary thyroid cancer, but it is rarely contracted without this disorder. Next, anaplastic thyroid cancer is the most fatal of all four subtypes. This types of cancer grows quickly and metastasizes to other parts of the body rapidly. “Anaplastic thyroid cancer is more likely to develop in men over the age of 70” (Thyroid Cancer).
Thyroid cancer has a multitude of symptoms that one can use to idenfity it. For example, a lump on your neck, pain in the throat or neck, difficulty swallowing, and swollen lymph nodes are all examples

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