Of the thyroid nodules, 85-95% are benign nodules. Of the malignant thyroid nodules, more than 90% are again low-grade malignant.
What about benign nodules?
Benign nodules can be reviewed regularly with ultrasound. It is normal for the size of the nodule to vary by a few millimeters on the ultrasound report, depending on the instrument and the examiner. There is no medication that can significantly reduce the size of nodules, and if TSH is >2.5, you should take Eugenol to control the nodules. Benign nodules are not a concern as long as they are not significantly larger and do not affect thyroid function.
What should I pay attention to in terms of diet?
Avoid iodine? Patients with thyroid nodules do not need to avoid iodine as long as they are negative for TpoAb, TgAb and TRAb; if they are positive for TpoAb, TgAb and TRAb, they should eat less seaweed and seaweed with high iodine content.
Seafood? People with benign thyroid nodules eat more seafood, not seafood as people generally think they cannot eat when they have nodules.
Cruciferous foods: cabbage, white radish, etc., should be eaten sparingly, but are not contraindicated.
Talking about iodine in food
If the iodine in table salt is counted as 1 times, then seafood such as seaweed, nori and seaweed is 1000 times; shellfish and crab is 100 times; fish, shrimp, squid and squid is 10 times; chicken essence is 700 times.
[Thyroid cancer].
A puzzling phenomenon.
The rate of thyroid cancer diagnosis has increased dramatically in the last 30 years. Almost all new cases of thyroid cancer diagnosed – 90 percent – are so-called microscopic papillary carcinomas, which studies show grow very slowly, show no symptoms, and cause almost no death.
Factors behind the increase.
One is because of advances in high-tech imaging techniques, such as the widespread use of ultrasound, CT and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which can now detect thyroid nodules as small as 2 millimeters.
Another factor is that physical examinations have led to a dramatic increase in the number of ultrasound examinations of the neck.
The ease of use and misuse of these techniques has led to overdiagnosis.
Does the detection of thyroid cancer require immediate surgery?
Malignant tumors of the thyroid gland are classified according to pathological types as papillary carcinoma, follicular carcinoma, medullary carcinoma, undifferentiated carcinoma, lymphoma, and metastatic carcinoma. Among them, low-grade malignant ones account for about 92%, and the three-year survival rate is over 90%. These low-grade malignant ones can be killed with isotopes (radioactive iodine) even if they have metastases, regardless of the part of the body they have metastasized to.
As long as it is follicular, surgery is recommended regardless of whether it is a tumor or a cancer.
There has been a controversy about the need for surgery for papillary carcinoma. One side believes that knowing the pathological result is malignant, it is easy to have long-term psychological burden if not operated; and if metastasis occurs, it needs to be treated with isotope, and surgery is still necessary before treatment. So they believe that as long as it is determined to be malignant, surgery must be performed. On the other hand, the other side believes that it is over-medication to operate one thyroid cancer when one is found. Because according to a Japanese study, the metastasis rate of papillary thyroid cancer is 1% at 5 years and 5% at 10 years, and no post-operative re-metastasis has been observed to occur when you go for surgery after metastasis is found. Therefore, surgery does not need to be so aggressive, resulting in over-medication. And there is also a controversy about whether the surgery should be total or partial resection.