It is written by Dr. Konstantinos Apostolou, MD, MSc, PhDSpecialist Thyroid and Endocrine Surgeon.
The word “cancer” no doubt evokes awe and fear, as the human mind automatically conjures up worst-case scenarios. However, certainly not all forms of malignancy present the same aggressiveness, nor the same prognosis. Among the malignancies with the best prognosis is thyroid cancer.
THE thyroid cancer shows a significant increase in its frequency in recent decades, with recent studies attributing this phenomenon to the awareness of the world and therefore to the more frequent realization, compared to the past, of routine imaging examinations (check-up).
The different forms of thyroid Cancer In the broad sense of thyroid cancer, various forms – histological types of thyroid cancer are included, with the majority of them characterized, as mentioned above, by an excellent biological behavior and therefore an excellent prognosis.
Forms of thyroid cancer include:Papillary thyroid cancer is the most common form of thyroid cancer worldwide, accounting for 75-80% of all cases. Papillary thyroid cancer exhibits an excellent biological behavior, of course, as long as it is diagnosed in time and treated correctly. Because of its extremely high incidence, papillary thyroid cancer will be our subject today.
What signs should we be concerned about?Thyroid cancer presents as a nodule of the thyroid gland, which may increase in size over the years or show suspicious findings on thyroid ultrasound. These suspects thyroid nodulestherefore, they are the ones that are further investigated and the diagnosis of thyroid cancer is made.
Most patients with thyroid cancer do not have any symptoms that they will notice. This also explains the fact that most patients show normal levels of thyroid hormones in the blood.
In some patients, however, a large papillary thyroid cancer may appear as a hard mass in the neck area that the patient himself palpates, or as a sudden hoarseness of the voice, in cases where the thyroid cancer invades the recurrent laryngeal nerve.
Here it is worth underlining that the exceptional biological behavior presented by most cases of thyroid cancer automatically creates great expectations for patients and their relatives, regarding their definitive cure. There can be no doubt that nowadays these expectations are completely justified and realistic, as long as the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid cancer are carried out in time and correctly.
Does thyroid cancer always affect the lymph nodes? Thyroid cancer is characterized by a tendency to metastasize to the cervical lymph nodes, with cases of distant metastases to other organs being rare.
Revealing the presence or absence of metastases of thyroid cancer in the neck lymph nodes is carried out through a detailed ultrasound of the neck, the so-called mapping of the neck and lymph nodes. By interpreting the mapping data, both the endocrinologist and the thyroid surgeon already know preoperatively the condition of the cervical lymph nodes, which will determine the further surgical treatment of each patient.
Dr. Konstantinos Apostolou is a Specialized Thyroid and Endocrine Gland Surgeon, with extensive and many years of experience in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with thyroid cancer. For more information, you can contact the surgeon at 210 7709910 and 6940 167070.
Personalized Treatment for Thyroid Cancer As explained to us by specialized thyroid surgeon Dr. Konstantinos Apostolouthere can be no doubt that all cases of thyroid cancer are not identical.
Therefore, it can total removal of the thyroid gland (total thyroidectomy) to constitute him corner stone her treatment for him cancer thyroidhowever in some patients it is not enough. These patients already have thyroid cancer metastases in the cervical lymph nodes and should also undergo surgery subtraction of lymph nodes where appear them metastasesa technically special surgery that is performed at the same time as the total thyroidectomy and is called cervical lymphadenectomy. With the total removal of the thyroid gland as well as the lymph nodes showing metastases, we achieve the complete removal of thyroid cancer and its metastases in the lymph nodes, offering excellent local and regional control of the disease, thus offering patients a definitive cure and at the same time a excellent life expectancy.
It is extremely important to underline it excellent importance which, scientifically proven, takes place selection of appropriate surgeon for the treatment of thyroid cancer. OR scientifically correct treatment of cancer thyroid recommends one multifactorial procedurewhich presupposes the realization of one particularly demanding surgery interventionwhich ideally you should carries out someone experienced and specialized surgeon thyroidwhose experience and expertise ensure the achievement of excellent therapeutic results, without causing any kind of complication or thyroid residue to the patients.
The treatment of thyroid cancer does not end, however, with its surgical treatment, as the treating endocrinologist of each patient plays an equally crucial role as that of the thyroid surgeon in the treatment and post-operative monitoring of patients with thyroid cancer.
OR excellent cooperation between him healer endocrinologist and his surgeon thyroid it is supreme importanceas they will jointly determine the need for some patients to receive postoperative complementary treatment with radioactive iodine, as well as detect in time any possible recurrence of thyroid cancer, which is not such a frequent phenomenon and should not terrify patients, under the condition that the thyroid cancer has been treated correctly and radically by an experienced and specialized thyroid surgeons