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Thyroid Cancer Survival Rate
You might be curious to know the Thyroid Cancer Survival Rate. But, before knowing about that, you must know about the brief knowledge of Cancer and Thyroid Cancer.
Everyone should be aware of this and must gain knowledge regarding cancer. So let’s get into the concept of Cancer.
Introduction To Cancer
Most people know that Cancer is Dangerous but don’t know what is a Cancer right? Well, in past Cancer is dreadful. Cancer’s treatment was well developed these days. And there’s a cure for every stage in Cancer.
Confused? Let’s dive in more.
What is Cancer?
Cancer is a disease where it starts spreading up when our body cells grow largely out of control and a drastic increase in the number of cells and filling out the normal cells. As there are abundant large cells this disturbs the metabolism and functioning of our body.
Stages Of Cancer
We might have heard like this – “his cancer is in the 3rd stage and his condition is critical”. Any of you heard these words?
Yes, Cancer has 4 stages. Stages 1, 2, 3 & 4 respectively.
These stages are grouped under two heads. Considering Stage 1 and 2 as less risky stages. As the Cancer spread is not much. 3rd and 4th stages are high risky. As the Cancer spread is high. 4th stage is the danger zone.
Lumps
Generally, most cancers form lumps which are called tumours. Benign is the tumour that is not cancer. Malignant is the tumour that is Cancer.
There is no particular condition to form a Lump to cause cancer. Blood Cancer doesn’t even form tumours. Tumours are one of the sign but we shouldn’t conclude it as cancer.
Types Of Cancers
There are many types of cancers but these are the major types of cancers that occur mostly. Blood Cancer (Leukaemia), Bone Cancer, Skin Cancer, Breast Cancer, Lung Cancer.
Well, these cancers again have different types in their individual traits. As this is a brief knowledge I’m not gonna cover the whole part.
I have not included Thyroid cancer because it is not the major type.
So, I guess I have given you a brief knowledge of Cancer Disease. Let’s dive into the Thyroid Cancer.
Thyroid Cancer
As I have said about Cancer, the cells grow larger in number out of control. So, Thyroid Cancer develops when the cells in the Thyroid gland grow out of control.
The thyroid gland is located in the frontend part of your neck. It has 2 lobes, right lobe and left lobe respectively. The thyroid gland is responsible for the generation of hormones that regulates blood pressure, heart rate, metabolism and also in maintaining the temperature of our body.
Thyroid Gland Cell Types
The Thyroid gland consists of 2 main cell types:
- Follicular cells
- C cells
Follicular cells are responsible for body metabolism. They utilize Iodine from the blood for the making of thyroid hormones. There should be a balance in the secretion of the Thyroid hormone.
As the heavy secretion (hyperthyroidism) causes irregular heartbeat, improper sleep, being hungry in less time, loss in weight and feeling of being warm. And the less secretion (hypothyroidism) causes gaining weight and feeling tired all the time.
C Cells prepare Calcitonin, this a hormone responsible for the regulation of calcium flow in the body.
Moreover, the remaining less common cells are supportive cells and immune system cells.
You should know about these cells because different Cancers arise from each kind of cell. And the variations of the cells are necessary to know. Because they tell us how significant cancer is and what type of treatment is necessary for the cure.
Thyroid Conditions That Are Not Cancer (Benign)
These are the conditions of the Thyroid Gland if its not cancer.
Enlargement Of Thyroid Gland
The change in the shape and size of the Thyroid gland is seen and felt in most of the patients. However, there are many reasons for a thyroid gland to become large and mostly it won’t turn into cancer. The large and abnormal thyroid gland (called a goitre) is of two types.
Goitre may be diffuse, which means the entire thyroid gland is large. Goitre may be nodular, which means the large gland consists of one or more bumps (nodules) in it. These two types of goitres are due to an imbalance of certain hormones.
Lumps In Thyroid Gland
Lumps in the Thyroid gland are called Thyroid Nodules. Most Thyroid Nodules are not cancer, only 10 out of 100 are malignant (that are cancer). Due to this, the secretion of the hormone will be more and mostly it is Benign. The solid nodules are most likely to be cancerous but they are not cancer.
Benign Nodules in the Thyroid gland are left like that and will be in observation state whether they grow or cause symptoms.
So, these are the conditions that we face in Thyroid gland but they are not Cancer. Let’s dive into the types of Thyroid Cancers.
Types Of Thyroid Cancers
There are 3 main types of Thyroid Cancer.
- Differentiated Cancer
- Medullary Cancer
- Anaplastic Cancer
1. Differentiated Cancer
This cancer consists of three types:
- Papillary Cancer
- Follicular Cancer
- Hurthle Cancer
Papillary Cancer is the primary thyroid cancer. 8 of 10 thyroid cancers are papillary cancers. This cancer develops slowly and mostly spreads to lymph nodes in the neck. Though this is the most recurring cancer it can be treated successfully. There is low risk in this type of cancer and chances of death are seen rarely.
Follicular Cancer is the following, next to papillary cancer. And 1 of 10 is follicular thyroid cancers. It is a common type of cancer where iodine levels in that country are very less. This cancer does not spread out to lymph but this spreads other parts of the body. This cancer is a bit dreadful compared to papillary cancer. But can be treatable good in most of the cases.
Hurthle Cell Cancer is a rare one and only accounts for 3% of thyroid cancers. It is harder to sort out this type and even more difficult to treat.
2. Medullary Thyroid Cancer
Medullary Thyroid Cancer is developed from the C cells in the Thyroid gland. This type of cancers accounts for 4% of Thyroid Cancers. This cancer has a chance to spread to lymph nodes, liver or lungs.
Medullary Thyroid Cancer (MTC) consists of 2 types
- Sporadic MTC
- Familial MTC
Sporadic MTC mostly develops in adults and mostly affects only one thyroid lobe. This is not an inherited cancer. Sporadic MTC accounts 8 of 10 MTC.
Familial MTC is an inherited cancer. That is it has a 20 to 25% chance of being inherited from family members. This cancer develops in childhood or at the end of teenage. This type of cancer mostly affects both the lobes and can be risky with causing different types of tumours.
3 Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer
Anaplastic Cancer is a very rare type of Thyroid Cancer and accounts for only 2% of all the Thyroid gland cancers. Anaplastic Cancer can affect the neck mostly and also other parts like lungs. This kind of cancer is very hard to treat. In this type of thyroid cancer, the survival rate is very less.
So, these are the major types and this is all about thyroid cancer. Let’s dive into Thyroid Cancer Treatment.
Treatment For Thyroid Cancer
There are 6 types of treatment for thyroid cancer. They are:
- Surgery
- Radiation Therapy
- Thyroid Hormone Therapy
- External Beam Radiation Therapy
- Chemotherapy
- Targeted Therapy
1. Surgery
Surgery is the primary treatment chosen for most of the thyroid cancer cases except for anaplastic thyroid cancer. However, if thyroid cancer is examined by biopsy, surgery is recommended to remove the tumour or part of the remaining thyroid gland.
Lobectomy is the operation recommended when the lobe contains cancer. Differentiated thyroid cancers (papillary or follicular) also require this surgery when they are small and no sign of spreading in the thyroid gland.
Thyroidectomy is the surgery, recommended to remove the thyroid gland. The most common surgery recommended by most doctors.
Lymph Node Removal is best when cancer spreads to lymph nodes which are near in the neck part. Mostly important for medullary and anaplastic thyroid cancer.
2. Radioiodine Therapy
When Thyroid Cancer occurs, the cells in the thyroid gland absorb all iodine from the body. Radioiodine therapy can destroy thyroid cells that take up iodine and thyroid glands as well. So this is a type of treatment for Thyroid Cancer.
3. Thyroid Hormone Therapy
When the thyroid gland is removed, our body no longer secretes a hormone that needs. So Thyroid hormone pills are necessary to replace the natural hormones. This helps in maintaining body metabolism, heartbeat rate, blood pressure as well.
The high dosage of these pills helps to slow down TSH hormone levels in the pituitary gland and hence helps in slowing the growth of any remaining cancer cells.
4. External Beam Radiation Therapy
External Beam Radiation therapy is a treatment where an external machine is used and high energy rays are sent to destroy the cancer cells or make their growth slow.
However, this therapy works best for medullary and anaplastic thyroid cancers. This often works best for the type of cancers that don’t utilize iodine from our bodies.
5. Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is a treatment where the anti-drug is sent into our body through veins or directly from the mouth. These drugs join the blood and circulate the entire body to destroy the cancer cells.
In most cases, there is no need for chemotherapy. However, chemotherapy and beam radiation therapy are combined sometimes to treat anaplastic thyroid cancer.
6. Targeted Thyroid Cancer
When treatments like surgery and radioiodine therapy are not showing effective treatment on cancer cells, the targeted drugs help these treatments to treat cancer.
These drugs work effectively for differentiated cancers (papillary and follicular) where the treatment is no longer working with iodine therapy.
Thyroid Cancer Survival Rate
We use a 5-year relative survival rate to measure the thyroid cancer survival rate.
5 Year Relative Survival Rate
Relative survival rate compares the stage and type of thyroid cancer people with overall state or country population. For suppose if 80% is the 5 Year Relative Survival Rate of specific thyroid cancer. It means, 80% of specific cancer people will be the same as normal people who don’t have any cancer for a minimum of 5 years after the diagnosis of disease.
I hope you might be clear about Relative Survival Rate. Let’s go through different types of thyroid cancers relative survival rate.
Statistics of Thyroid Cancer Survival Rate
We have collected this information from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) which provides statistics of survival rates of different cancers. And SEER is a database which tracks the 5-year Relative Survival rate based on how bad cancer spread in our body.
Here are some of the abbreviations you need to know before understanding the statistics
(These statistics are completely based on the US)
Localized mean there is no indication of cancer spread outside the thyroid gland.
Regional mean there is a little spread to nearby parts outside the thyroid gland.
Distant mean the cancer spread is far away from the thyroid gland and to parts such bones.
5 Year Relative Survival Rates for different thyroid cancers
Papillary Thyroid Cancer Survival Rate
The statistics clearly show that approx 100% of people suffering from Papillary Thyroid Cancer are like normal people for 5 years or more. This shows that the cancer is not dreadful for most of the people.
Medullary Thyroid Cancer Survival Rate
The stats clearly show that this is also a majority of the sufferers will be like normal people. And this is not a much dreadful cancer.
Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer Survival Rate
As I have been stressing from early that Anaplastic cancer is a very rare and dangerous cancer, the stats prove that. You can see that only 7% of the affected people will be normal for the next 5 years.
Well, this is all about Thyroid Cancer Survival rate and I hope you all get this and find it useful. Took a lot of hard work to gather this information and frame it into an article. Hope you would share this article for your friends and family.
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