Thyroid Cancer!!! Please help.?

Question

Hello my name is Eric. Im 16 years old and my dad is currently diagnosed with PAPILLARY THYROID CARCINOMA, which is Thyroid Cancer.

I have a few questions that are an EMERGENCY.
Here is the story...

-My dad (48) has had this lump in his neck for a few months (tumor) we had no idea what is was so we did not care. a few weeks after i looked it up in the internet and i didnt find anything, he went to the doc anyways and had the tumor removed. then we found out it was a tumor...from the Thyroid Gland...then the doctor told him he had Thyroid Cancer and nothing else..he told my dad to go to a specialist because my dad has to go work out of town....1000miles for 4-5 weeks...so he went to the specialist to see if it was a problem to go out-of-town.

The doctor then did almost nothing and said it did not matter if he left hte Cancer alone for another 4-5 weeks.
Today my mom asked me to investigate how true this was..she is really scared that somehting might happend to my dad...What?

What should we do? i dont want a dead dad. Can he go to California to work for a few weeks??

info- my dad has had NO side effects of the cancer EXCEPT for the Tumor in the side of his neck.

info-my dad said that the cancer specialist almost did nothing to him on the exam day. my dad i not really worried, lol , its me and my mom and all of other relatives. What should we do? And can i know something else about this cancer apart from that it a very slow growing cancer.

Thanks to all those who care!
God Bless you All!

And as for the treatment. Does it matter if it is delayed for 5 weeks?? And the doctor never told us the stage of the cancer just that is was ok to go and WORK for 5 weeks. my dad is a painting contractor...

Answer 1

Well . . in general, Papillary thyroid cancer is slow growing . . it is common and if found early treatable and curable . . If the doctor indicated that it was okay for him to wait . . than he has examined him and knows more about the cancer than anyone here.

Although very rare, Familial papillary thyroid cancer can also run in families. If your father has the type of inherited thyroid cancer . . or anyone else in his immediate family has thyroid cancer . . than you and your siblings need to be checked too. I know that at the moment you are all very concerned about your Dad, but this is important too. It is usually the other type of Thyroid cancer, Medullary, that tends to more commonly be inherited. But you should still be checked. I'm going to point you to some reading material.

And, remember Just because your father has a Thyroid cancer does not mean that you or any of your siblings will end up with it too .. this is just something to be informed about and possibly checked within your family. Please read about the genetics of Thyroid cancer:

PLWC: The Genetics of Thyroid Cancer
http://www.plwc.org/portal/site/PLWC/menuitem.034b98abc65a8f566343cc10ee37a01d/?vgnextoid=efc1ea97a56d9010VgnVCM100000f2730ad1RCRD

And general information about Thyroid cancer:

NCI: Thyroid cancer
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/thyroid
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/treatment/thyroid/HealthProfessional/page3

ACS: Thyroid Cancer
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/CRI_2_3x.asp?rnav=cridg&dt=43

Medline Plus: thyroid cancer
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/thyroidcancer.html

American Thyroid Association
http://www.thyroid.org/

Thyca: Thyroid Cancer Survivors Association
http://www.thyca.org/

Best to you and your family.

Answer 2

The good news is papillary cancer is very curable and very slow growing. I'm a little confused by the fact that you mention your dad had the tumor removed and now the doctor is saying to see a specialist. I had papillary cancer last year and here's how the normal course of treatment works:

- Biopsy of the thyroid lump (also called a thyroid nodule) to determine if it's cancer. This is a small needle they put into the lump to pull out a little bit of it so they can determine if it's cancerous.

- If it's cancer, you'll have surgery to remove the entire thyroid (this is done in the hosital - I stayed there for 2 days and it took about another week after that to recover). The pain wasn't bad, just hurt to swallow (like there was a giant lump in my throat).

- Radioactive iodine (also called RAI) treatment to get rid of any remaining thyroid cancer cells. This is a pill you take. There are no real side effects, but you do need to limit your contact with other people for a few days. Usually this is done about a month after the surgery, but sometimes later. For example, I waited 9 months b/c I was pregnant at the time (you can't have RAI if you're pregnant).

- After that hopefully the cancer will be gone and your dad should go back to living a normal life. He'll need to take thyroid hormone medication (a pill) every day since he no longer has a thyroid.

- Every few months he'll have his thyroid levels measured to make sure he's on the right dose of medication, and he'll also have body scans (like an x-ray) once or twice a year to make sure the cancer hasn't come back.

It's true that it's very slow growing so he doesn't need to rush into treatment. From when I found out I had a thyroid nodule until the time I had the surgery was about 3 months.

Try to hang in there. I know cancer is very scary, but as everyone told me if you're going to get cancer, thyroid cancer is one of your best bets since it's so curable. And it's also not known to be heriditary so you don't need to worry about other family members getting it.

Answer 3

im a 20 3 hundred and sixty 5 days outdated guy with thyroid issues, I truly have alot of the comparable warning signs as you. all i will say is that in case you do have thyroid maximum cancers it extremely is between the main treatable varieties of maximum cancers around. yet to me it doesnt sound like maximum cancers. only take a deep breath, relax, and enjoy life.

Answer 4

You can get a second opinion. Do this if you are not comfortable with what you heard. Thyroid Cancer is usually very treatable. It is very scary to hear about cancer. Can you let your dad know that the waiting is too much and you are too worried for him to stall? Usually it is better to get on things than stall.

Answer 5

This is just a blurb from google news a year or so back but its very much of interest for your case.

"Dr. Evangelos Michelakis, a professor at the University of Alberta Department of Medicine, has shown that dichloroacetate (DCA) causes regression in several cancers, including lung, breast, and brain tumors. "

"Evangelos Michelakis of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and his colleagues tested DCA on human cells cultured outside the body and found that it killed lung, breast and brain cancer cells, but not healthy cells. Tumours in rats deliberately infected with human cancer also shrank drastically when they were fed DCA-laced water for several weeks."


http://www.thedcasite.com/

That site should inform you more thoroughly about the compound itself. Generally the compound is used to treat mitochondrial diseases but he has shown that cancer mitochondria can be normalized.

Answer 6

I heard one site about thyroid cancer and its treatment. I think this website more help to u. Pls try this. Here the link

Answer 7

you will have to trust what the doctor said.or get another doctor to tell you this.unless you can find someone on here that has had this.also try www.webmd.com
message board.there are people on there with this problem im sure.I would think guessing only since it was taken out it would be okay to wait.however im no doctor.i will pray for healing .God bless you all

Answer 8

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