97: Five Important Things Your Thyroid Surgeon Maybe Not Telling You, with Dr. Akira Miyauchi

During this episode, the following topics are discussed: 1. Financial burden of surgery versus total cost of active surveillance over ten years.  2. Stretching Exercises for Neck 3. Setting patient expectations prior to FNA to manage anxiety 4. When the laryngeal nerve is severed during thyroid surgery, it can and should be repaired, with proper surgeon skill and training.  5. The most common question asked to Dr. Miyauchi by surgeons from around the world. 

Continue Reading97: Five Important Things Your Thyroid Surgeon Maybe Not Telling You, with Dr. Akira Miyauchi

96: Rethinking Thyroid Cancer – When Saying No to Surgery Maybe Best for You with Dr. Allen Ho from Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles

Weighing treatment options for thyroid cancer, with deep consideration for the patient’s lifestyle, could become the new norm in assessing whether surgery is the best path. Dr. Allen Ho states, “if a patient is a ballerina or an opera singer, or any other profession that could be jeopardized due to undesired consequences of thyroid cancer surgery, then the best treatment path maybe active surveillance.” Undesired consequences of thyroid cancer surgery could be vocal cord paralysis, damage to the parathyroid glands resulting in calcium deficiencies, excessive bleeding or formation of a major blood clot in the neck, shoulder nerve damage, numbness, wound infection, and mental impairment due to hypothyroid-like symptoms.

Continue Reading96: Rethinking Thyroid Cancer – When Saying No to Surgery Maybe Best for You with Dr. Allen Ho from Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles

95: Thyroid Cancer Patients Experience Quality of Life Downgrade with Dr. Raymon Grogan and Dr. Briseis Aschebrook from the University of Chicago Medicine

"The goal of this study is to turn it into a long-term, longitudinal cohort," said Grogan, who hopes to develop a tool that physicians can use to assess the psychological wellbeing of thyroid cancer survivors. "But, there was no way to do that with thyroid cancer because no one had ever studied quality of life or psychology of thyroid cancer before.”

Continue Reading95: Thyroid Cancer Patients Experience Quality of Life Downgrade with Dr. Raymon Grogan and Dr. Briseis Aschebrook from the University of Chicago Medicine

94: Take a Step Back⎢Thyroid Surgery with a Clear Mind, with Dr. Bryan McIver from Moffitt Cancer Center

Bryan McIver, MD, PhD Dr. McIver contributes to Moffitt Cancer Center almost 20 years of clinical experience in the care of patients with endocrine diseases, specializing in the evaluation of patients with thyroid nodules and thyroid cancer. He has a particular interest in the management of patients with advanced and aggressive forms of cancer and the role of genetic and molecular techniques to improve the accuracy of diagnosis. Most nodules are benign When to do a biopsy How to interpret the results of biopsy Advances in thyroid cancer Ultrasound technology advancements Molecular markers Cytopathology categorizations Molecular marker technologies Gene expression classifier

Continue Reading94: Take a Step Back⎢Thyroid Surgery with a Clear Mind, with Dr. Bryan McIver from Moffitt Cancer Center

93: The Results of 30 Years of Patients Receiving Active Surveillance Instead of Surgery; Dr. Akira Miyauchi from Kuma Hospital in Kobe, Japan

The result of over 1000 cases of active surveillance shows no resulting deaths of patients who choose no surgery for thyroid cancer Dr. Akira MiyauchiProfessor Akira Miyauchi (Figure 1) is…

Continue Reading93: The Results of 30 Years of Patients Receiving Active Surveillance Instead of Surgery; Dr. Akira Miyauchi from Kuma Hospital in Kobe, Japan

92: Your Patient Type May Determine Your Thyroid Cancer Treatment → Dr. Michael Tuttle from Sloan Kettering

What type of patient are you, a minimalist or maximalist? About Dr. Tuttle, in his words:I am a board-certified endocrinologist who specializes in caring for patients with advanced thyroid cancer. I…

Continue Reading92: Your Patient Type May Determine Your Thyroid Cancer Treatment → Dr. Michael Tuttle from Sloan Kettering

91: What Do You Do For a Living?⎥Why It Matters, with Dr. Ashok R. Shaha from MSKCC

Dr. Shaha specializes in head and neck surgery, with a particular interest in thyroid and parathyroid surgery. He uses an algorithm of selective thyroid tumor criteria (the size, location, stage and type of cancer, along with the patient's age), to tailor therapy to each individual's circumstances. In this interview, topics include: * The first question a surgeon should ask and why. * When talking active surveillance or observation, changing the language to deferred intervention,  'we are going to defer'. * Understanding the biology of the cancer * The biology of thyroid cancer is a friendly cancer.

Continue Reading91: What Do You Do For a Living?⎥Why It Matters, with Dr. Ashok R. Shaha from MSKCC

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.

Continue Reading89: Thyroid Cancer Web Sites Confuse Patients with Dr. Rashika Bansal from St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center

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 pill — this and other…

Continue Reading88: Has anything changed in the past 50 years of treating thyroid disease? (including thyroid cancer) The answer is yes. → Dr. Leonard Wartofsky from MedStar

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.

Continue Reading87: A Must Listen Episode Before Getting Surgery – Do Not Do It Alone, with Douglas Van Nostrand from MedStar Washington Hospital