How We Treat Thyroid Cancer

Surgery is the most common treatment option for thyroid cancer. The goal of surgery is to take out the cancer as well as a slight edge of healthy tissue around the tumor. In some cases, all or part of the thyroid gland may be removed in other cases only one side of the thyroid, where the tumor is located, is removed. In order to ensure that all cancer has been removed, surgery may also be used to take out lymph nodes in the neck and chest that haven’t gotten better with other treatments.

If your entire thyroid gland is removed, you will take thyroid hormone replacement pills daily for the rest of your life.

Learn more about cancer surgery.

Radiation therapy uses high-energy X-rays to kill or shrink cancer cells. Your doctor may use internal or external radiation, or both, to treat your cancer. This treatment can be used to shrink a tumor before surgery, kill cancer cells that remain in the area after surgery, target tumors that can’t be removed with surgery, or treat cancer if you cannot have surgery.

The type of radiation used depends on the type and stage of your cancer. Thyroid cancer may be treated with radioiodine therapy, which uses radioactive iodine to destroy thyroid cancer cells in the body or external radiation therapy, which uses rays of energy directed right at the tumor to kill cancer cells.

This treatment stops the growth of cancer cells that rely on certain hormones. Thyroid hormone medicine is given to replace hormones. The medicine also slows down the growth of other cancer cells that are left. It’s sometimes used with chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy uses powerful medicines, either given through a vein or taken as pills, to kill cancer cells all through the body. Chemo is given in rounds, followed by a break; treatment can last for months. Chemo may be used to shrink a tumor before surgery or to kill any cancer cells that remain after local treatments. It may also treat tumors that have grown in other places in the body. Cancers that have spread are usually treated with chemotherapy.

Targeted therapy drugs target the changes in cells that cause cancer cells to form. These drugs affect the cancer cells in your body and leave your normal cells alone. This treatment course sometimes works when standard chemotherapy drugs don’t, and they often have different (and less severe) side effects. Targeted therapy drugs come as pills that you take at home.

Your doctor may suggest using this therapy in combination with chemotherapy or radiation therapy. This is especially true if your cancer has stopped responding to radiation or chemotherapy care.