Cancer question

[Liz94]

A good friend of mine has a 19 year old daughter who recently had her thyroid removed due to cancer. She called me since I had mine removed for the same thing 3 years ago. But my situation differed in that they got all of mine and my lymph nodes were not involved.  She told me that both sides of her thyroid showed papillary cancer, part of her thymus was taken and it was positive for cancer and they took several lymph nodes and they also tested positive for cancer.  She was told to stop her thyroid meds immediately and referred to an oncologist as well as a follow up with her endo.  My question is.....will having RAI help her since it's in the lymph nodes?  I had a dose of 150 mCi for my cancer and it was contained.  She was calling me to kind of give her a notion of what to expect and I honestly don't know since mine was pretty cut and dry for the most part.  As you can imagine this girl is very upset and I'm trying to let her know it'll be okay but I honestly don't know how they treat it once it's spread.

[Liz94]

That is pretty much what I thought. I passed along this info to her and hopefully she'll make a full recovery.

[Cycl3Chick]

The RAI will destroy any thyroid tissue that is left behind after surgery, and its certain that tissue will get left b/c its impossible to remove every little tissue cell.

They will also use the RAI in small doses to scan her body for any remaining cancer.  If its still in any lymph nodes, they can see it on the scan and will follow up with surgery.

Hope everything goes well, I know its scary.  I had papillary that spread to my lymph nodes as well and I am still kicking and breathing and cancer free so far :D