# Frozen section?



## Tamellen (Jul 5, 2013)

I had two negative FNA's. decides to have total thyroidectomy due to growth of nodules. When removing, doc did a frozen sample. It came back suspicious for papillary cancer. My question to the board is if a frozen sample is suspicious, does it usually mean cancer? The waiting it killing me......help appreciated.


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## KeepOnGoing (Jan 2, 2013)

Hi! I don't have any personal experience of frozen sections, but from what I've read on this forum, it appears they are somewhat unreliable, so I wouldn't panic just yet. They only really know for sure when they take their time and look at the whole thing in detail.

I know what you mean about the waiting though, it really is the worse! Do you know when you will find out for sure?


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## Octavia (Aug 1, 2011)

Frozen sections are notorious for being inaccurate--false positives and false negatives. It's pretty much a wait and see. My frozen section was negative, but my final pathology was positive for papillary thyroid cancer, so I had to go in for a second surgery. You were smart to get the whole thing removed to avoid that issue.


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