Freaky Friday Medical Fact ~ Thyroid Cancer

Freaky Friday Medical Fact ~ Thyroid

January is thyroid awareness month. For my first “Freaky Friday Medical Fact” I chose these interesting facts about thyroid cancer.

• Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine cancer. Thyroid cancer is a cancerous tumor or growth located within the thyroid gland.
• Thyroid cancer is one of the few cancers that has increased in incidence rates over the past several years. There are expected to be 11% more new cases in 2007 than in 2006 in the United States.
• The American Cancer Society estimates that there will be about 33,550 new cases of thyroid cancer in the U.S. in 2007. Of these new cases, about 25,480 will occur in women and about 8,070 will occur in men. About 1,530 people (880 women and 650 men) will die of thyroid cancer in 2007.
• Many patients, especially in the early stages of thyroid cancer, do not experience symptoms. However, as the cancer develops, symptoms can include a lump or nodule in the front of the neck, hoarseness or difficulty speaking, swollen lymph nodes, difficulty swallowing or breathing, and pain in the throat or neck.
• There are several types of thyroid cancer: papillary, follicular, medullary, anaplastic, and variants.

Several years ago I was diagnosed with Follicular thyroid cancer. As far as cancers go and thyroid cancer and specifically, follicular thyroid cancer is one of the most treatable cancers. I had stage II verging on stage III, the cancer had spread outside the thyroid but it had not spread into the lymph nodes. The treatment was a total thyroidectomy followed with radioactive iodine therapy. For more thyroid cancer information either click on this link Thyroid Cancer Survivors.