Thyroid cancer in children is different from that in adults. This can manifest itself in the following ways:
- Although the vast majority of thyroid nodules are not cancerous, a higher percentage of thyroid nodules in children are cancerous compared to adults. Therefore, if your child has a thyroid nodule, it is important to get a thorough examination and evaluation as soon as possible.
- Unlike adults, nearly half of children with thyroid cancer will have enlarged lymph nodes, which can be found by examining the neck. This is caused by the spread of a small number of cancer cells, which predicts a poor outcome for adults, but not necessarily for children.
- In addition to the lymph nodes, in about 15% of children with thyroid cancer, the cancer spreads to the lungs. In adults, the development of lung metastases predicts a poor outcome, but this does not appear to be the case for children.
- Many children with thyroid cancer will have persistent lung disease, but the disease does not progress or worsen rapidly over the next 15 to 20 years. In fact, the lung lesions may slowly diminish after treatment with radioactive iodine (RAI).
- We also lack data on long-term outcomes in children with thyroid cancer.
A recent study included 188 pediatric and adolescent patients with thyroid cancer who were followed up to 60 years after diagnosis. The results showed that about 1 in 3 patients developed recurrence (27% at 20 years of follow-up and 33% at 40 years). Only 1% of all subjects died from thyroid cancer.
This article is from http://www.thyca.org网站 and was compiled by the Tencent Medical Dictionary medical team and is used with permission.