Thyroid Cancer: Overview

What is Thyroid Cancer?

Thyroid cancer occurs when cells in the thyroid gland begin to grow out of control, sometimes forming nodules or lumps. It usually grows slowly, and most cases can be successfully treated.

In the United States, close to 53,000 people receive a thyroid cancer diagnosis each year. Although it can happen at any age, it’s most frequently diagnosed in women in their 40s and 50s and in men in their 60s and 70s.

Thyroid cancer is generally grouped based on the specific cells it develops from.

• Differentiated thyroid cancers, such as papillary thyroid cancer, are the most common. These cancer cells still look somewhat like normal thyroid tissue under the microscope. These typically start in follicular cells, the part of the thyroid responsible for making hormones.
• Non-differentiated cancers can come from the thyroid’s calcium-controlling cells, the immune cells that fight infections within the thyroid, or from follicular cells that are so mutated that they no longer look like thyroid cells under a microscope.

“Although papillary thyroid cancer is the most common, the other types of cancers tend to be more aggressive and tend to spread more widely, at least in advanced cases,” Dr. Lisa Orloff, a head and neck surgeon at Stanford Medicine, tells SurvivorNet.

It’s important to note that even when thyroid cancer is diagnosed at an advanced stage, there are treatment options. This is a disease where the prognosis is typically very good.