Thyroid Cancer

Thyroid cancer is the most common type of endocrine cancer. The thyroid, a gland at the base of the throat, creates hormones your body’s cells need to function properly.

Not long ago, the thyroid cancer rate was increasing faster than any other cancer in the United States, though most likely because of enhanced detection. About 44,000 new cases are expected nationally in a given year.

Types of Thyroid Cancer

Here are the types of thyroid cancer:

• Papillary thyroid
• Medullary thyroid
• Follicular thyroid
• Anaplastic thyroid
• Thyroid lymphoma

Thyroid Cancer Treatment

If you have thyroid cancer, your care team will most likely recommend removing all or part of your thyroid gland. Many healthcare systems use a general surgeon for this purpose. The Cancer Institute, however, is fortunate to have an endocrine surgeon, Dr. Carrie Carsello, who performs procedures on the thyroid, parathyroid and adrenal glands.

“Most thyroid cancers will be treated with a surgical intervention,” says Dr. Carsello, “and a lot of individuals who might have increased risk of recurrence may have radioactive iodine treatment following surgery. Very rarely do we treat thyroid cancer with chemotherapy and radiation.”