Question re: test results.

[Akatzman86]

Hi all,
I'd love some input on this. I think i know/understand what the test means, but just checking.
I have stage 1 papillary thyroid cancer, had half my thyroid out when we figured out it was cancer, getting the other half out soon.

I had blood tests, and one of those tests I believe looked for thyroglobulin auto-antibodies, or perhaps antibodies?

Anyways, it came back negative. To the best of my understanding, this means the likelihood is that the cancer was excised with the initial surgery. Is that right, wrong, etc?

[898_1]

The thyroid tissue (either normal or well – differentiated malignant (papillary cancer) secrets thyroglobulin; therefore if no thyroglobulin is found in your blood, it means no thyroid tissue is left or growing, which is a good result.
The I-131 radioactive fallout-induced thyroid cancer was commonly detected among the children who drank milk soon after the Chernobyl explosion and lived in rural areas. Such cancer has specific genetic makeup, therefore, in theory, it was possible to test for predisposition to this type of cancer by doing molecular testing. Also the radiation –induced thyroid cancer has VERY low recurrence rate.

[Akatzman86]

Oh, because I categorically refused to let them take it out entirely. They couldn't definitively prove I had cancer, pre-surgery, and I'm 25; i saw no reason to lose a thyroid unless totally neccessary, and felt that my doctors were being overly cautious because I was born in the chernobyl zone.

[red262757]

I guess my question would be... why didn't they take it all out the first time?
I had papillary sarcoma 26 years ago, found it when I was pregnant with my daughter. I would think that to be on the safe side they would have removed it all.They took out all of mine and havebeen cancer free for 26yrs. They also took out 25+ lympnodes.