follicular cells

[faithful123]

I was recently diagnosed with follicular cells from a biopsy.  I have a 2", a !" and a 1/2" mass all on the right side of my throid.  My doctor has recommended removal.  The little I've read on this site, follicular cells are thyroid cells.  Why is it wise to have surgery on masses that contain the proper cells for a thyroid biopsy?  I have been on methotrexate and Humira for several years for rheumatoid arthritis.  I was told before the biopsy that taking the methotrexate away usually resulted in the masses shrinking and/or going away.  does anybody have any experience of taking a wait & see attitude in a similar situation and having the masses shrink or go away?

[cookie1349]

what is rare follicular groups mean...... please help me fna say benign thyriod nodule. consistent with goiter.

[faithful123]

Yea, the "if's" are what's scaring me!  I believe the lump in my tonsil was NO coincidence!  I think it was put there so the masses would be found.  It's hard to ignore that fact.  The FNA was non-specific & the Dr. said the cells were follicular but he wouldn't know which kind they were until he got in there to do the surgery & had the masses biopsied.  He said if the follicular cells were contained within the masses it was not cancer.  If they had started breaking through or leaking out of the mass it would be considered cancer.

[MANmom]

I am much the same as ChitChatNine.  My nodules (4) were solid, vascular, biopsy revealed benign follicular clusters, which was not diagnostic.  I had the three on the right side removed due to swallowing difficulty and hoarseness, they found no cancer in the nodules, but I did have 2 microcarcinomas (stage 1 cancer) in my THYROID TISSUE.  I still have a nodule on the left that will come out with the rest of my thyroid in two weeks.  Benign follicular cells look just like cancerous follicular cells, it is how they behave that distinguishes them.  You may not have cancer in the nodules, but then again you might.  You might have cancer in the thyroid tissue itself, but you may not.  They can not take a small amount of the thyroid out due to the vascularity of the gland, it would bleed too much, too risky.  I believe the only other thing they can do is a core biopsy, which gets more cells than the FNA.  The wait and see approach is fine because if you do have any cancer in the thyroid, it is slow growing and usually does not spread.  You may not see anything now, but in six months you may see something else on the ultrasound.  Good luck.

[ChitChatNine]

Are your labs normal?  Do they think it could be follicular cancer vs. a follicular adenoma (overgrowth of thyroid tissue).  I would go for a 2nd or 3rd opinion to make up your mind.  That is what many of us have done.  Mine were atypical follicular cells and turned out benign but I was told that 25% of my type go on to turn into cancer so we didn't take any chances.  Mine turned out totally benign (2 of them the largest 1.7cm's) but upon final biopsy they found 2 tiny papillary microcarcinoma tumors so after the fact I was very happy I had the surgery with those atypical cells.

C~