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Home ❯ Services and specialties ❯ Thyroid cancer

Understanding your risk

Like other cancers, your risk depends on many variables including:

  • Family history
  • Lifestyle behaviors (e.g. smoking)
  • General health

At Optum, our oncology department offers comprehensive cancer risk assessments and hereditary cancer genetics evaluation programs to help you identify your risk. Start our online hereditary assessment now ›

Diagnosing thyroid cancer

In most cases, someone with thyroid cancer does not experience any symptoms. It is usually found during a routine neck examination or incidentally during an imaging study of the neck. When the cancer begins to develop, a person may notice a lump in the front of their neck.

If you suspect you may have thyroid cancer, contact your doctor about performing a diagnostic evaluation where they will:

  • Discuss your medical history, family history and any symptoms
  • Check for abnormal lumps or growths, and enlarged lymph nodes in the neck

If your provider decides further examination is appropriate, they may perform the following diagnostic tests:

  • Blood tests: These test will check the functioning of your thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and possibly thyroid hormone levels (T3 and T4).
  • Ultrasound: An ultrasound uses sound waves to provide a detailed image of the thyroid where your physician can observe its size, as well as the size and characteristics of thyroid nodules that have developed in the gland.
  • Biopsy: The only way to definitively detect thyroid is through a biopsy. During this procedure, the doctor will extract a sample of the suspicious tissue. This is usually done as a fine-needle aspiration, where a needle is inserted into the nodule and cells are withdrawn into a syringe. A pathologist in a lab will examine this tissue to determine if the growth is cancerous.

Types of thyroid cancer

  • Papillary thyroid cancer: This type of cancer grows in finger-like shapes on the thyroid and tends to spread to lymph nodes. However, the outlook for people who develop this type of cancer is generally good because it grows slowly.
  • Follicular thyroid cancer: Follicular cancer affects the follicular cells in the thyroid and is more likely to spread to distant organs than papillary cancer.
  • Medullary thyroid cancer: Medullary cancer develops in C cells in the thyroid, which make a hormone that controls the level of calcium in the blood.
  • Anaplastic thyroid cancer: Anaplastic cancer is by far the most aggressive form of thyroid cancer and is often more difficult to treat.

Treatments

  • Thyroidectomy is a surgery to remove half of the thyroid or the whole thyroid and possibly lymph nodes in the neck.
  • Thyroid hormone replacement therapy helps maintain normal metabolism rates and stop any remaining cancer cells from growing.
  • Radioactive iodine ablation helps to eliminate any remaining thyroid cells.
  • Chemotherapy administers chemicals in pill or IV form to kill and slow the growth of cancer cells.

Learn more about our minimally-invasive robotic assisted surgery options ›

Medical care and help

To find a thyroid cancer specialist near you, visit our Providers page.

Contact us if you have any questions.