DOCTOR INTERVIEWS
Surgery
89: Thyroid Cancer Web Sites Confuse Patients with Dr. Rashika Bansal from St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center
In this episode Dr. Bansal shares the research she presented at AACE 2017 and ENDO 2017, regarding the poor readability scores for thyroid cancer web sites.
The challenge for these web sites and health institutions is to translate thyroid education from complex to simple and easy to understand. Currently, many patients are not following up with treatment, citing confusion after being exposed to the various thyroid cancer education resources.
88: Has anything changed in the past 50 years of treating thyroid disease? (including thyroid cancer) The answer is yes. → Dr. Leonard Wartofsky from MedStar
Thyroid replacement therapy has been around since 1891, when patients were served sheep thyroid tartar. Now, patients have the convenience of a taking a simple
87: A Must Listen Episode Before Getting Surgery – Do Not Do It Alone, with Douglas Van Nostrand from MedStar Washington Hospital
Dr. Douglas Van Nostrand, MD is the Director of Nuclear Medicine and the Program Director of the Nuclear Medicine Residency Program at Washington Hospital Center and Professor of Medicine, Georgetown University Hospital Center.
86: Thyroid Cancer Treatment and Surgery Explained⎥Dr. Gerard Doherty from Harvard Medical School
* Imaging has increased thyroid nodule discovery.
* Following patients with small thyroid cancer ? analogous to prostate cancer. Better followed than treated.
* Tiny thyroid cancers can be defined by those nodules less than 1/4 inch in size.
* Less RAI is being used as a part of thyroid cancer treatment. This means, less need to do total thyroidectomy or thyroid lobectomy.
* Dry mouth and dry eyes are risks to doing RAI. Also, there is risk to developing a second malignancy. Most of the secondary cancers are leukemia.
* Risks to operation include changes to voice and calcium levels. Thyroid surgery is a safe operation but not risk free.
* Best question for a patient to ask is, who is my treatment team?
84: Flame Retardants Connected to Thyroid Cancer, with Dr. Julie Ann Sosa from Duke University
This is an in depth discussion about the connection between flame retardants and plastics, and thyroid cancer. These chemicals, also known as endocrine disruptors, have a clear connection to thyroid cancer occurrence.
The research is presented by Julie Ann Sosa, MD MA FACS is Chief of Endocrine Surgery at Duke University and leader of the endocrine neoplasia diseases group in the Duke Cancer Institute and the Duke Clinical Research Institute. She is Professor of Surgery and Medicine. Her clinical interest is in endocrine surgery, with a focus in thyroid cancer.
80: Everything You Need to Know About Thyroid Nodules with Dr. Regina Castro from Mayo Clinic
60% of people in the U.S. have thyroid nodules, and almost all are benign — the others maybe reason for concern. M. Regina Castro, MD