Prognosis for Papillary Thyroid Cancer

[missmichele24]

My sister is 28 years old and was just diagnosed with stage 1 Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma.  What is the latest recommendation as far as treatment goes?  It sounded like there were several options but it's hard to figure out what is best..  She had two tumors removed during the surgery, one was the size of a "XL egg" and that one was benine. The other one was about 1 cm and that was the one that was malignant.  They said it was "stage 1 and contained". They took out half of her thyroid at the time of surgery.  She has one child and would like to have more, I am not sure if that needs to be taken into consideration when deciding on treatment.  Is it better just to take the whole thyroid gland out, or is there a better route?  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  

[Mark Lupo, M.D.]

Based on what you are describing, it sounds like the dominant tumor was well above a 1 cm (" an extra-large egg").  The treatment of choice in this situation is a completion thyroidectomy to remove the remaining thyroid tissue.  Then, a discussion with the endocrinologist regarding the staging of the tumor (TNM staging) to determine whether or not radioactive iodine is needed.  Because she has small children at home, this is a more difficult decision however if the staging of the tumor is aggressive than radioactive iodine with appropriate radiation safety measures would be appropriate.  If there is any question regarding the extent of therapy needed, a second opinion with a University based or tertiary care center may be appropriate in this situation.

[missmichele24]

Her doctor already removed half of her thyroid when he removed the tumors.. He is sending her back to an endocrinologist to discuss more options but told her that her options were to go back and remove the whole thyroid and take some radioactive iodine, just remove the whole thyroid, or wait and see what happens and be monitored every year or so to check for new tumors and do nothing.. Seems like a pretty wide range of options to me. It just seems scary to not do anything even though this type of cancer is usually slow growing. It also makes me wonder how pregnancy and the hormones that come with being pregnant effect the growth of thyroid tumors. She has a baby who just turned 1 year old and noticed the tumor when the baby was about 6 months old.

[mario_santiago_77]

Hi,

Is her doctor advice her to remove the whole thyroid out? or just only half?