At the bottom of your throat, you will find a super important organ: your thyroid gland. This controls the metabolism in the human body. It creates the hormones that affect your blood pressure, body temperature, weight, and even heart rate. When cancer attacks your thyroid, all these crucial factors get compromised too.

With lobes on each side, the thyroid gland is shaped like a butterfly. Women are more prone to thyroid cancer. People who have had heavy exposure to radiation in the neck, head, and throat area have a greater chance of getting thyroid cancer.

Thyroid cancer types

• Papillary cancer
• Follicular cancer
• Hurthle carcinoma
• Medullary cancer
• Anaplastic cancer

Papillary cancer

Follicular cells are responsible for developing this form of cancer. It is the most common within thyroid cancer types. It mostly occurs in one of the two lobes, with only 10-20% cases where it has occurred in both. Papillary cancer has a high chance of spreading in the lymph nodes.

Follicular cancer

This type of cancer is also developed through follicular cells, but it is not as common as papillary cancer. There are fewer chances of this cancer spreading in the lymph nodes. If it is found in a person under 50 years of age, there is a good probability of their cancer being curable. Both follicular and papillary cancer are types of differentiated cancer and constitute almost 95% of all thyroid cancer patients.

Hurthle carcinoma

Hurthle carcinoma emerges from certain kinds of follicular cells too. Like papillary cancer, this too has a high chance of reaching your lymph nodes. About three percent of thyroid cancer patients have Hurthle cell cancer.

Medullary cancer

This kind of cancer is formed from C-cells, which are responsible for making calcitonin in the body. This hormone regulates the calcium and phosphate in your body. If you detect high levels of this hormone in your body, doctors could diagnose this type of thyroid cancer in its earliest stages. Although it is uncommon, certain genetic syndromes may increase the risk of medullary thyroid cancer.

Anaplastic cancer

Anaplastic cancer is extremely rare: only about one percent of all thyroid cancer patients have this specific strain. It grows fast and is very difficult to treat. Cutting the anaplastic tumor out through surgical resection is almost never enough. This is because even those who are diagnosed in its early phases need a complete thyroidectomy. If you have anaplastic cancer, you will certainly need chemotherapy and external-beam radiation.

Now that you’re aware of the various thyroid cancer types, you will know exactly what to expect when you’re going through one of them. Even after you get your thyroid resected, the disease can linger in smaller cells that escape the knife during surgery. They could re-emerge with cancer in your lymph nodes. So get yourself educated about this potentially fatal disease. The more you know about the particular kind of thyroid cancer, the easier it is to treat and to prepare for relapse.