# What to test for after thyroid glad removed, due to cancer?



## molonese (Jul 20, 2011)

My sister's thyroid glad has been removed 6 months ago due to thyroid cancer. What are the tests do you recommend doing as a follow up in managing her health? I'm wondering if she should be doing TPO, TGB Antibodies even though she does not have a thyroid anymore. Just to see where she is in terms of her inflammation levels. Her doctor is saying she needs none of those but what do they know, anyway...

Thanks very much in advance!

Molonese.


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## webster2 (May 19, 2011)

hi, I had mine removed in July because of cancer. I just had a blood test last week for TSH, Free T4. There was a mix up and Free T3 should have been tested as well.They testes T3. I also asked for Vit D and ferritin. 
Best Wishes.


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## molonese (Jul 20, 2011)

Thank you for your reply. What about the TPO and TGB antibodies?


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## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

molonese said:


> My sister's thyroid glad has been removed 6 months ago due to thyroid cancer. What are the tests do you recommend doing as a follow up in managing her health? I'm wondering if she should be doing TPO, TGB Antibodies even though she does not have a thyroid anymore. Just to see where she is in terms of her inflammation levels. Her doctor is saying she needs none of those but what do they know, anyway...
> 
> Thanks very much in advance!
> 
> Molonese.


Oh, Wow!! Sorry to hear about your sis and her thyroid cancer journey. Did she have RAI also?

It would be very important to keep her TSH suppressed. That will help to keep the antibodies way way down and also will help to prevent any cancer from coming back.

The FREES will be ultra-important tests as her TSH will no longer be the road map for titrating her thyroxine replacement.

Here is info on that.

Free T3 and Free T4 are the only accurate measurement of the actual active thyroid hormone levels in the body. This is the hormone that is actually free and exerting effect on the cells. These are the thyroid hormones that count.
http://www.drlam.com/articles/hypothyroidism.asp?page=3

Also, would you know if she had Thyroglobulin and Thyroglobulin Ab tests prior to her surgery? If so, they would be good "markers" for any reoccurrence of cancer.

More info.

Understanding Thyroglobulin Ab.
http://www.labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/thyroglobulin/test.html

Thyroglobulin Ab and cancer
http://qjmed.oxfordjournals.org/content/59/2/429.full.pdf

Another Thyroglobulin and cancer
http://www.mdlinx.com/endocrinology...963/?news_id=811&newsdt=092010&subspec_id=419

To be honest with you, TPO Ab can be present with other autoimmune diseases including cancer and autoimmune thyroid so maybe once in a while might be good on that. She now has a "baseline" so it would be easy to detect movement.

Hugs for your sis,


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