Thyroid cancer

Thyroid cancer is cancer in the thyroid gland. Doctors can find thyroid cancer by checking for swelling in the neck, blood tests, special scans, or taking a biopsy.

Types

There are four types of thyroid cancer:

Type of Thyroid Cancer:	This Type Makes Up...	Does it Grow Slowly or Quickly?	Can it Metastasize (Spread)?	How Do People Do with Treatment?
Papillary	70% of all thyroid cancers	Slowly	Yes, but not quickly	People do well with treatment; patients under 45 rarely die from papillary thyroid cancer
Follicular	10-15% of all thyroid cancers	Slowly	Yes, through the bloodstream and into other organs, like the lungs	People do well with treatment; patients under 45 rarely die from follicular thyroid cancer
Medullary	4% of all thyroid cancers	Usually slowly	Yes, early on	People do well if the cancer is only in the thyroid gland, but not as well if it has spread to other body parts
Anaplastic	2% of all thyroid cancers	Quickest of all thyroid cancers	Yes, very quickly

Thyroid Cancer Media

• Lymph node with papillary thyroid carcinoma.jpg

  Micrograph of a lymph node with papillary thyroid carcinoma

• Pie chart of relative incidences of thyroid cancers.png

  Pie chart of thyroid cancer types by incidence.

• Diagram showing stage M1 thyroid cancer CRUK 241.svg

  Diagram showing stage M1 thyroid cancer.

• Diagram showing stage N1a thyroid cancer CRUK 242.svg

  Diagram showing stage N1a thyroid cancer.

• Diagram showing stage N1b thyroid cancer CRUK 243.svg

  Diagram showing stage N1b thyroid cancer.

• Diagram showing stage T1a thyroid cancer CRUK 250.svg

  Diagram showing stage T1a thyroid cancer.

• Diagram showing stage T1b thyroid cancer CRUK 251.svg

  Diagram showing stage T1b thyroid cancer.

• Diagram showing stage T2 thyroid cancer CRUK 258.svg

  Diagram showing stage T2 thyroid cancer.

• Diagram showing stage T3 thyroid cancer.

• Diagram showing stage T4a thyroid cancer CRUK 272.svg

  Diagram showing stage T4a thyroid cancer.