# doctor says having TT and RAI is 'overtreating' ??



## sophie.j (Sep 1, 2012)

so i have my follow up appointment, having had a partial thyroidectomy about a month ago they discovered it was papillary cancer.

my surgeon says that he thinks i should just have scans once a year. he said i can have surgery if i want but i would be over treating it. he checked my vocal chords and my left one is paralysed from the last operation, he said that it could take 3-12 months to come back. so thats great news as a piano and voice teacher!!!

not sure what to do?! any advice?


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

What kind of scans is he suggesting?

Could you remind us how large the cancerous nodule was? If you have a copy of the pathology report, see if you can type the parts out describing the cancerous part.

I know this is frustrating, but hang in there!


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## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

sophie.j said:


> so i have my follow up appointment, having had a partial thyroidectomy about a month ago they discovered it was papillary cancer.
> 
> my surgeon says that he thinks i should just have scans once a year. he said i can have surgery if i want but i would be over treating it. he checked my vocal chords and my left one is paralysed from the last operation, he said that it could take 3-12 months to come back. so thats great news as a piano and voice teacher!!!
> 
> not sure what to do?! any advice?


Well, if you had papillary cancer, I don't know why they only did a partial. That makes no sense to me.

If you had RAI, it would zap out the remaining thyroid.

Or maybe this is your second partial TT????


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## sophie.j (Sep 1, 2012)

andros - they only found out it was papillary cancer after my op

joplin - nodule was 2.5cm in total, 1.7cm cancerous. i have no clue what sort of scans. and no pathology report. :/

x


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## Octavia (Aug 1, 2011)

Well, in the United States, the protocol would be to remove the other half of your thyroid, then treat with RAI to kill off any remaining cells. Perhaps the protocol in England isn't quite so conservative or strict.

It does seem to me, however, that you should have a scan now-ish, instead of waiting a year, just to make sure there's no spread visible at this time.


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

I do work with a woman who had a partial and opted to leave the other side in and go with monitoring. But her in case, she was aware that the cancerous nodule was small (I think around 1cm) and well-encapsulated.

It's really hard to say without additional information, but I agree with Octavia -- we're used to much more aggressive treatment.

Have you had your thryoglobulin tested yet?


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