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?