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.
* 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?
Not all thyroid cancer patients who receive a thyroidectomy require radioactive iodine, but for those whose cancer maybe more aggressive and spread beyond the thyroid area, often radioactive iodine (RAI) is protocol. RAI treatment may vary depending on the hospital. In this interview, Dr. Alan Waxman explains what occurs leading up to, during, and after RAI. Topics discussed include: If staying at the hospital after taking RAI, how long is the stay required? Should you go home after RAI? What is the benefit of staying overnight at the hospital when receiving RAI? Worldwide trends toward prescribing lower doses of RAI. Is there risk in RAI causing leukemia?
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.
Carmelo Nucera, M.D., Ph.D., is currently an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, Boston, in the Division of Cancer Biology and Angiogenesis (Department of Pathology), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Dr. Nucera received his M.D. and Ph.D. in Experimental Endocrinology and Metabolism from Italy. In this episode, Dr. Nucera discusses a combination drug therapy using vemurafenib and palbociclib represents a novel therapeutic strategy to treat papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC).
In this episode, the following topics are explained: * Optimizing thyroid health prior to conception * Thyroid issues that affect pregnancy * Hypothyroid as result of surgery or Hashimotos * Hyperthyroidism and pregnancy * Adjusting current thyroid treatment, meaning optimizing thyroid levels by adjusting dosage of thyroid medication * TSH levels in light of pregnancy * Planned pregnancy usually means a dose increase
In this episode, we hear from Evan Simon, Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Oregon State University. Evan was diagnosed with advanced Stage IV thyroid cancer, which resulted a 13 hour surgery. At the end of his surgery, Evan was told he would not be able to lift his hands overhead for 3 months, instead he broke the odds, taking him only 3 weeks.
60% of people in the U.S. have thyroid nodules, and almost all are benign — the others maybe reason for concern. M. Regina Castro, MDis a consultant in the Division…
Dr. Bridget Brady is Austin's first fellowship-trained endocrine surgeon. In this episode the following topics are discussed: Austin Thyroid Surgeons sees 30 patients per week with thyroid nodules Up to 80% of US population could have a thyroid nodule(s) less than 5% of Dr Brady's thyroid nodule patients test positive for cancer How relevant is what I don’t know won’t hurt me in thyroid cancer and biopsies of nodules? BETHESDA system or the middle category, also known as indeterminate For thyroid nodules that are indeterminate, historically a surgery would be performed With molecular testing, surgery can be decreased by up to 50% Afirma molecular testing uses messenger RNA If Afirma comes back suspicious it does NOT necessarily mean it is cancer
How often does thyroidectomy result in surgical errors or unwanted outcomes? The answer is much more often than reported. The reported surgical error rate for papillary thyroid cancer is 2 – 3%, however, research reveals errors are nearly six-times that number.