The most common Thyroid Cancers are known as “differentiated”, these are papillary and follicular cancers. Follicular cancer may include a variant called Hurthle cell.
These types of Thyroid Cancers are usually treated with surgery and Radioactive Iodine treatment (RAI).
Other, less common types of Thyroid Cancers are Medullary, Anaplastic and Lymphoma. These have a different treatment protocol. Support for Medullary Thyroid Cancer (M.E.N. 1 and 2) is available from A.M.E.N.D.
TSH Suppression
Another important aspect of thyroid cancer treatment is thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) suppression.
Your thyroid team will want to keep your thyroid hormone levels at a slightly higher level than would normally be required, by doing this the TSH will be ‘turned off’ or suppressed.
This will be required for at least the several months following diagnosis and for some patients it may be longer.
It is very important than no one other than your thyroid team such as your GP alters your thyroxine dose. Should this happen please refer them to your thyroid team before making any changes to your medication.
Some centres give out TSH alert cards for patients to carry. Butterfly Thyroid Cancer Trust can supply your hospital with TSH cards free of charge.