Anaplastic thyroid cancer? edit

What about medullary or anaplastic thyroid cancer? I'm not an expert and therefore don't feel qualified to contribute, but I'd appreciate if someone did.

Well, you could list them on the page, and someone else will build the article from there. That is the power of the wiki. JFW | T@lk 00:20, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Role of iodine edit

We all know about iodine prophylaxis for radiation incidents, but to mention this concept in the intro was a bit too much. Now I have no idea where to put it; does this apply to all four forms of TC or just to follicular or papillary?

Is there any use for radiotherapy in anaplastic TC? JFW | T@lk 16:30, 13 September 2005 (UTC)Reply

This is about thyroid cancer, not radiation contamination. The majority of thyroid cancers in the developed world, from memory, are not traceable to a radioactive incident - so the topic just isn't very relevant here. A small number of papillary are inherited. Most we just don't know the origin of.

The radiation contamination thing also does not apply to medullary and anaplastic.

Diagnosis edit

I put some random info in the diagnosis section, and dumped a ref. or two at the bottom of the page, but I'm not really qualified to edit this: Just interested because my wife got a nodule (good to see it's probably nothing bad!!) --Slashme 12:46, 2 November 2005 (UTC) This is still pretty random two years later. Someone needs to do some work on this! Maybe if I have some time over the holidays.... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Woodforthetrees (talkcontribs) 12:05, 22 December 2007 (UTC)Reply

Papillary thyroid cancer & Chernobyl edit

I am not a doctor, but I heard on RFI that papillary thyroid cancers is necessarily induced by radioactivity. Has anyone here any info about that? It would help avert an edit-war on the Chernobyl disaster article, since a French study by the Institut de radioprotection et de sûreté nucléaire claims that no "direct links can be found between the increase of thyroid cancers in France and Chernobyl radioactive fallout", although it also states that papillary thyroid cancers have tripled since Chernobyl. This, according to RFI (who was interviewing the CRIIRAD and the French Association of THyroid-Affected Patients), means the study contradicted itself, and that there is in fact a direct link observable between Chernobyl and the increase of thyroid cancer. Can anybody here confirm or infirm if papillary thyroid cancers are always induced by radioactivity? Lapaz 17:21, 27 April 2006 (UTC)Reply

It's impossible to show that thyroid cancers are always induced by radioactivity, since there is always background radiation present. There is incontrovertible evidence, however, that exposure to excess radiation leads to increased risk of thyroid cancer. —Brim 16:31, 27 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

Yes, and increased awareness leads to increased diagnosis as well. Most papillary thyroid cancers cannot be traced to radioactive incidents, so it does not follow that a rise in papillary thyroid cancer rates indicates a rise in radiation incidents. A perfectly valid hypothesis would be that following chernobyl, a lot of people worried about thyroid cancer and checked their necks for nodes. The minute they found anything, they went to the doctor. Since it is known that a very high proportion of the population carries tiny bits of papillary thyroid cancer around without it ever growing into a serious illness (estimates vary - will find the references), it would be very likely that more "cases" would turn up if more nodules were being investigated.

Annual scans not recommended any more (Follicular and Papilliary)? edit

Is this true? Is there are reference for this?

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Verilog (talkcontribs) 00:53, 8 August 2006

Cleanup edit

I have tagged the article for cleanup. It is very disorganized, with many internal inconsistencies. --Una Smith 16:36, 21 September 2007 (UTC) Here here! Thank you! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Woodforthetrees (talkcontribs) 12:11, 22 December 2007 (UTC)Reply

What is a "modality" edit

The statement "radioactive iodine is a commonly used modality" is opaque. Even after consulting a dictionary I don't know what it means. Does "modality" mean "treatment"?

Agemegos (talk) 23:25, 2 January 2008 (UTC)Reply

You're right. FWIW, in this specific case it stands for "treatment modality" (treatment type/approach/etc). I've improved the lede section a bit. Mira Gambolputty (talk) 16:28, 29 January 2008 (UTC)Reply

What pills to take to prevent thyroid cancer? edit

I read long time ago that there are pills that could be bought over the counter in any drug store that can prevent cancer if taken a few minutes before being exposed to radiation. Given the possibility of a nuclear explosion in Iran after the US or Israeli bombardment, the radioactive cloud might presumably reach many parts of the world. Perhaps millions of people will be exposed to radiation and subsequent cancer. So, what is the name of the pills, does anyone know?

potassium iodide —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.194.84.236 (talk) 22:29, 21 September 2008 (UTC)Reply


Questions and Answers Section sites no sources! edit

The whole Questions and Answers section was a bit of a shock to me. I've never seen anything like that on Wikipedia...it appears to be entirely heresay, siting no sources whatsoever. Regardless of whether the information presented was in fact true for an individual, I think it's strange to present that in the context of general information. Add information: 05:35, 8 January 2011 Hugozam (talk | contribs) m (22,064 bytes) (→Question & Answers) I suggest this be removed. Russella (talk) 04:05, 18 February 2011 (UTC)Reply

Done. It was added with the right intentions, but Wikipedia is not a site for original research. The Q&A's would be better posted on a cancer information website (where parts could then be properly referenced). 124.187.182.120 (talk) 04:34, 19 February 2011 (UTC)Reply

Thyroid neoplasm vs cancer edit

I removed a tag suggesting merging Thyroid cancer into this article, because, as seen in Classification in this article, thyroid neoplasms can be either cancers or benign adenomas, so the Thyroid cancer article would have to be merged to a subsection within Classification. However, the what-links-here for Thyroid cancer are way too many to motivate rewriting all those links to become targeted redirects. Mikael Häggström (talk) 11:24, 23 April 2011 (UTC)Reply

Someone messed up the formatting really badly edit

Under the malignant neoplasms header. I don't even know what they did, someone fix it. Lonewolf9196 (talk) 02:29, 19 April 2013 (UTC)Reply

Fixed.--Debouch (talk) 03:19, 19 April 2013 (UTC)Reply