# Poll: Post TT Pathology results



## sweetgrace (Apr 13, 2012)

Curious if anyone has had a TT and found out it had been benign? Anybody have a TT and found out it was cancer after the surgery? I got to thinking about it after reading this article http://thyroid.about.com/b/ 2008/07/17/ hashimotos-patients-face-higher -risk-of-thyroid-cancer.htm


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## Lovlkn (Dec 20, 2009)

a friend of mine was told she had thyroid cancer and had her thyroid removed for that reason. Pathology showed no cancer. She still feels better physically so it all worked out for her.


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## teri2280 (Feb 7, 2012)

My PCP was 99% sure it wasn't cancer, but still referred me to an endo for a goiter.

2 days pass.

My endo was 90% sure it wasn't cancer, but refered me to a surgeon because said goiter had calcium deposits (which he felt would make an FNA come back inconclusive, which is why he recommended surgery) and was multinodular.

3 weeks pass.

My surgeon was 99.9% sure it WAS cancer, but there were no signs of lymph node involvement.

Another 3 weeks pass. I have surgery.

Path comes back - Cancer, in 2/12 lymph nodes removed.


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## susieintexas (Mar 4, 2012)

My FNA came back benign and I was told it was just autoimmune. They were kinda right. I had 2 tiny papillary cancer spots but the large nodule was autoimmune.


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## crimebuff (May 25, 2012)

I had nodules on one side, but decided to do total TT because if cancer was found they would need to go back and take the ther side--did Affirma gene expression test which was 50% suspicious--pathology came back as Cancer so I did the right thing.


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## titian1 (May 12, 2011)

I had a TT for a 6cm tumor and a 15cm tumor. Both turned out to be benign but I can now breathe again.


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## webster2 (May 19, 2011)

I had a 6cm benign nodule and several smaller ones that weren't. All is well in my world now!


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## interpret77 (Apr 10, 2012)

My FNA came back pretty suspicious and sounded very much like cancer but they wouldn't confirm till they did a frozen section while I was in surgery.


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## CindiG (May 9, 2013)

crimebuff said:


> I had nodules on one side, but decided to do total TT because if cancer was found they would need to go back and take the ther side--did Affirma gene expression test which was 50% suspicious--pathology came back as Cancer so I did the right thing.


In your case you were lucky that the Afirma test help diagnose your thyroid cancer.I have a lot of great important articles by many different endocrinologists written at different times for The American Thyroid Association's journal criticizing the Afirma test and how 48% (I'm sure it's much higher!) they misclassify benign nodules as suspicious! They also in a smaller % misclassify cancerous nodules as benign! I would really like to post the articles on here but I don't know if the moderators will allow me to.

The other day I spoke to Barbara Rath Smith the executive director of The American Thyroid Association and she said she was going to email articles as files to download and she did. I asked her if I have permission to email and post these articles and she said yes,they are for the public.

A woman on the excellent health site Medhelp told me she had a 3cm. something nodule with a majority of Hurthle cells with normal thyroid blood tests and the Afirma test came back more than 40% suspicious so she had half her thyroid out and this nodule was benign! I also read on this Inspire site in their Thyroid Cancer Survivors Association forum,a woman had a 2cm indterminate nodule that everyone was concerned about and her Afirma test came out suspicious,and she had her thyroid removed,it turns out that the 2cm nodule was benign but they found tiny papillary cancers all under 5mm that weren't even seen on the ultrasound! She also said that her surgeon told her he's had five patients that had a suspicious result from the Afirma test,and then when their nodules were removed and tested they too were benign!

Yesterday endocrinologist Dr.Steven P.Hadak who co-authored one of these studies called me back and was very nice,he even had a patient waiting! He said this Afirma test is wrong half the time misclassifying benign nodules as suspicious,(I'm sure it's even more than half!) and I said this is not a good test,and he said I don't think it's a good test either!

Please click on this link,for some reason I can't cut and paste out the forum discussion. I just found *another* woman on this very board with a 1-1 and half cm solid hypoechoic nodule who had an inconclusive Fine Needle biopsy which was suspicious as a follicular neoplasm and mine is being called a follicular neoplasm with oncocytic (hurthle cell features) ,this woman had her FNA nodule sample tested by the veractye Afirma Test which is what I had done,the results came back telling her that her that their results on her FNA was highly suspicious and that because of this her endo told her she had an 80% chance of having thyroid cancer and so she had her thyroid out and found out it was benign!

http://www.thyroidboards.com/showthread.php?t=5283


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## CindiG (May 9, 2013)

Also, my first cousin had only one nodule over ten years ago and Dr.Susan Mandel a top thyroid cancer specialist at University of Penn did her FNA and it came back unfortunately inderminate so she had half of her thyroid out,it turned out it was benign as 90-95% of thyroid nodules are,even many that are suspicious and inconclusive. Her best friend has two nodules and also had an inconclusive FNA many years ago at University of Penn,she then went to another top place in NY,and got another inconclusive result. She then went to Dr.Anthony Jennings(who did my first FNA of all three of my small nodules that came back benign in June 2008) and now her results were benign.

Tipper Gore the ex-wife of ex vice president Al Gore also had only one nodule with two inconclusive FNA's and had half of her thyroid out in 1999 and it was a benign follicular adenoma.


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