Thyroid Cancer
By: Neha Mansoor
Thyroid
What is it?
It is a large ductless gland that secretes hormones regulating the growth and development through the rate of metabolism. Shaped like a butterfly and is located at the front of your neck under the larynx and on top of the central windpipe.
What is Thyroid Cancer?
The gland produces nodules that can grow up to the size of a tennis ball or 1-1.5 cm bigger than the actual size. It is when the cells in the thyroid gland start growing abnormally and they do not stop. It can happen to anyone at any age,though it mostly occurs in females. 14 out of 100,000 people are diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
Symptoms
-Lumps or nodules in front of the neck (single/multiple)
- Enlarged lymph nodes in the neck
-Problems with swallowing
-Hoarseness or voice changes
-Pain or discomfort in the neck
-Chronic cough
Diagnosis
Physical Exam- The doctor feels the gland for abnormalities such as lumps. Also checks nearby lymph nodes for grow or swelling.
Blood Test- Doctor may check for abnormal levels of thyroid stimulating hormones (TSH) in the blood. if the level is too high or too low means your thyroid is not
working properly. If the doctor thinks you have medullary thyroid cancer, you will be checked for high levels of calcitonin and have other blood tests
Ultrasound- The sound waves make a pattern of echoes as they bounce off organs inside the neck. The echoes create a picture of your thyroid and nearby tissues. The picture can show thyroid nodules that are too small to be felt. The doctor uses the picture to learn the size and shape of each nodule and if the nodules are solid or filled with fluid. Nodules that are filled with fluid are usually not cancer. Nodules that ...
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Lilley, Linda L. "What You Need to Know about Thyroid Cancer." The American Journal of Nursing 93.12 (1993): 46-50. Web. 19 May 2014. .
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"Staging and Prognosis." : Thyroid Cancer. Web. 17 May 2014. .
"Thyroid Cancer: Facts on Staging, Treatments, and Prognosis." MedicineNet. Web. 16 May 2014. .
"Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone (TSH) Suppression Therapy." WebMD. WebMD. Web. 18 May 2014. .
Works Cited
Many may wonder if nodules are cancerous, the answer is that they're not. They are just simply growths that affect the voice. Treating these nodules is simply stated. A specialist will first tell a person with a nodule to completely rest their voice. Rest is just the first step and will not get rid of them by that alone. If you are a speaker then speech therapy is recommended and if you're a singer than receive singing exercises from professional help. Surgery is that last result and is very uncommon. It is rarely necessary and is only for nodules that are extremely large or if six weeks of training and help left with no result at all. It is mainly an issue for children who are of the age of 10 or under. There are known to be some logical reasons why surgery is rarely recommended for them. Usually if a child has a nodule removed, it will most likely re-occur or come back and there would have been no point of removing it in the first place. Another thing is that children abuse their voice much more often than adults. This is just because they scream and carry on more often than adults ever would which results in possibilities of seeing the nodules resolve around the time the children hit puberty. For girls who are in their teens and becoming something like a cheerleader who constantly has to yell, future problems can occur. Schools rarely recommend speech therapy because most often it doesn't help.
requiered to determine treatment. Lab tests or imaging is often requiered as well. It’s chronic,
This is because the tissue swells around the eyes and suffer from hyperthyroidism, muscular weakness, and rapid pulse and develop a reddish, painless skin rash. People who show signs and symptoms usually are either mild or severe. It all depends on the activity level of the thyroid. The disease affects the immune system itself and no other places. Symptoms usually develop over a 3-month period. The carrier usually is not aware that they have Graves’ disease. They usually find out when the symptoms are severe. The common signs are weight loss, tremors, feeling of being hot, and palpitations. (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.org). The less common sign that can occur as well. They are over activity of the intestines, which leads to frequent bowl movements. Sometimes the breakdown of protein in muscles can lead to extreme weakness, which causes trouble breathing and limited endurance. (The Thyroid Book). The thought of having Graves’ disease can be disturbing. Mood swings and thinking impairment can be difficult to handle. Crying spells, depression and feeling down are common. The patient’s personality can be different and will change. This could make work difficult and hard to keep. Generally, a person with Graves’ disease will have a thyroid that is enlarged but will not have any pain from it. This is called a goiter and can be seen in the neck most of the time. Sometime you cannot see the goiter but by feeling and examining the neck, it can be detected.
Andersson, Maria; Zimmermann, Michael B. (2010). Influence of Iodine Deficiency and Excess on Thyroid Function Tests 28. pp. 45–69
...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).
In general, ultrasound waves produced by an instrument called transducer are sent into a patient. Some of the waves are absorbed, but the other portion of these waves are reflected when tissue and organ boundaries are encountered. The echoes produced by the reflected waves are then picked up by the transducer and translated in a visible picture often referred to as ultrasound. In the paragraphs that follow, the physics of how the transducer functions, what the ultrasound waves do, and how the image is formed will be explained.
Annette could not take that as a final answer and told her that she would not just leave it and should get a second opinion and have another test run. The patient went back and requested a more thorough test be completed, she got the results back and everything was clear and her primary care physician assured her she was fine. Initially she would perform the exams as learned in school, but now after finding something abnormal, she now does a more thorough check, especially on patients with a previous history of cancer. This incident solidified her belief in early detection and proper documentation.
Being able to identify lumps, swelling, tissue damage, cysts, and the overwhelming news of the sex of a baby all have something in common, an ultrasound. Swelling of the spleen, kidney stones, blood clots, aneurysms, cancer and so much more can be identified through the works of an ultrasound’s imaging technique. Ultrasound involves many concepts, procedures, and careers. The amount of medical possibilities involved with ultrasounds is useful in major medical diagnostics. The field of ultrasounds and career opportunities are widely growing. As medical careers flourish, needs for technicians in many fields of medicine are increasing. Instead of a doctor choosing complex and risky surgery to find out problems within the body, they can now choose a safer path; the ultrasound path. Patient’s history and physical evaluation are building blocks to diagnostics but ultrasounds are much greater. They are powerful tools used to see beyond the skin into the depths of a person’s body. What ultrasounds are, what types there are, and what they are used for, and the education and careers available are the major themes found in research on the subject. Knowledge of ultrasound and its background may help one decide what career is best for them. Understanding the wide array of diagnostic tests and their uses are essential to figuring out what a career as a sonographer entails and the type of education that is needed. Because there are plenty of possibilities for specializing with different technologies, there is a wide variety of job opportunities in the medical imaging career. The call for ultrasound’s assistance opens new paths in future high-quality careers.
“Several tests may be performed to diagnose the presence of cancer. An endoscopy uses a thin-lighted flexible instrument to evaluate the extent of the tumor. A suspected throat cancer must be confirmed by removing a small piece of tissue (biopsy). This tissue is sent to the laboratory for evaluation and diagnosis” (www.uihealthcare.com). Treatments for cancer include surgery, radiation therapy (intensity modulated radiation therapy or high dose radiation brachytherapy), and chemotherapy. There are alternate therapies such as naturopathic medicine, nutritional therapy, mind-body medicine, image enhancement, and spiritual support.
known is that mammography is the best way to determine if a palpable lump is
The thyroid is a reddish, ductless gland that looks like butterfly-shaped gland that is located in front of the trachea. The gland is the most richly vascular tissue. It consist of numerous closed follicles containing colloid matter and is surrounded by a vascular network. The thyroid gland might be small but it plays a huge role in our body. The thyroid influence the function of the body’s most important organs including: the heart, brain, liver, kidneys and even the skin. Ensuring that the thyroid gland is healthy and functioning properly is very important to the body’s health.
Among these disorders are hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism. Hypothyroidism is a disorder in which one is diagnosed for having and underactive thyroid. The probability for women over the age of sixty to develop an underactive thyroid is higher than those of other individuals. If left untreated it can potentially lead to obesity, joint pain, heart disease, and other health complications. On the contrary, hyperthyroidism is a disorder in which a person is diagnosed for having an overactive thyroid. This can cause nervousness and anxiety, hyperactivity, unexplained weight loss, and swelling of the thyroid gland which causes a noticeable lump to form on throat (known as a
Cystoscopy. Use to remove a small sample of tissue (biopsy) for analysis in the lab. This test most likely won’t be needed if this is the first time patient had signs or symptoms of cystitis.
As a non-ionizing imaging tool, ultrasound is used to view a wide range of anatomy, including the thyroid. A sonographer must be able to distinguish between benign and malignant signs in masses and lesions to make accurate reports of their findings, and these signs can differ depending on the structure. The image above displays an abnormal growth in the left thyroid lobe of a patient. There are many features that can be examined to determine whether growths in the thyroid are benign or malignant and so it is critical to examine the features of the mass carefully.
When someone has this disorder this is caused by a malfunction in the body's disease-fighting immune system, although the exact reason why this happens is still unknown. Hyperthyroidsim also may be caused by a goiter or toxic nodule, which are lumps pr nodule om the gland itself this produces a lot of hormone as well as the inflammation of the gland known as thyroiditis, this is caused by a virus or from the immune system. To be diagnosed you have to have a physical exam and blood testing, they may measure your TSH levels too. To be treated they may prescribe anti thyroid medications that help stop the thyroid production itself. They may also prescribe beta blockers. Graves disease happens when something in our bodies disease fighting system Doesn’t