The thyroid gland is located on both sides of the larynx and upper trachea and is composed of two lateral lobes and an isthmus that connects the two lobes and spans the upper trachea in an “H” shape. Under normal circumstances, the thyroid gland cannot be seen or felt in the neck. The thyroid is the largest endocrine organ in the body and is the only endocrine gland that stores its products outside the cells. The thyroid gland is necessary to maintain normal human development. With the help of thyroxine, it regulates the metabolic activities of all tissues and organs of the body, as well as growth and development.
What kind of disease is thyroid tumor?
Thyroid tumor is a chronic lesion in the front of the neck, which is shaped like a walnut and has a hard texture and can move up and down with swallowing. In the early stage of the disease, there is no obvious symptom, no pain, no itch, and it does not affect speech or eating. Therefore, it is usually detected when people have a physical examination. However, some of them can enlarge rapidly for a short period of time, and the neck becomes thicker. Further development may affect breathing, and a few may develop hoarseness or difficulty in swallowing. In addition, it can be secondary to hyperthyroidism and can also develop malignant changes.
Is thyroid tumor serious?
There are benign and malignant thyroid tumors, most of which are benign and a few are cancerous. Benign thyroid tumors are not serious in themselves, and there are usually no obvious symptoms when the tumor is small. However, if left untreated, the tumor will increase in size, and individual patients with larger tumors may have difficulty breathing, swallowing, and hoarseness due to compression of the trachea, esophagus, and laryngeal nerve. In addition, benign thyroid tumors have a 10%-20% malignancy rate. Therefore, they should be treated as soon as possible after detection.
Most of the malignant thyroid adenomas are of low to moderate malignancy, and the survival rate is 83%-95% on average after surgery. However, a few patients are highly malignant (i.e. undifferentiated carcinoma), which is a serious threat to life. Therefore, it should be taken seriously and treated promptly.
Why does thyroid cancer occur?
The cause of thyroid cancer is still not clear. It may be related to the following factors.
Iodine deficiency, radiation exposure to the neck, chronic stimulation of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), application of sex hormones, family factors, etc.
It is slowly transformed from other benign thyroid tumors: 1. Nodular goiter: the incidence of thyroid cancer is 5-10%. 2. Thyroid hyperplasia. 3. Thyroid adenoma: the cancer rate of thyroid adenoma is up to about 10-20%. 4. Chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis: the incidence of thyroid cancer is 4.3-24%. 5. 5. Hyperthyroidism: the incidence of thyroid cancer in hyperthyroidism surgery is 2.5 – 9.6%. When hyperthyroidism is combined with multiple nodules in the thyroid gland, thyroid cancer should be alerted. Therefore, once a thyroid tumor is detected, even if it is benign, it should be treated actively.
What is the prognosis of thyroid cancer?
Most of the thyroid cancer patients have a good prognosis, but there are still a few thyroid cancer patients who eventually die due to local invasion or distant metastasis of the tumor. The mortality rate of thyroid cancer has an important relationship with age, type of pathology and so on. The older the age, the higher the mortality rate. Well-differentiated papillary and follicular carcinomas have a low mortality rate, with a 10-year survival rate of about 88% after surgery. The highest mortality rate is for undifferentiated carcinoma.
How to treat thyroid tumors?
Smaller benign thyroid tumors can be treated conservatively, such as using traditional Chinese medicine; larger tumors or those with malignant tendency should be treated by surgery as soon as possible, and pathological sections should be made to confirm benign and malignant diagnosis.
1. Thyroid adenoma: It may cause hyperthyroidism (incidence 20%) and malignant change (incidence 10%), so it should be removed by surgery early. Surgical treatment can completely cure it.
2.Treatment of goiter: For those with slow growth, no local pressure symptoms and normal thyroid function, no special treatment can be given. Close clinical follow-up, regular physical examination and ultrasound examination. Observe the growth of thyroid nodules. Regularly monitor serum TSH level to detect subclinical hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism in time. For those who have large tumors with local pressure symptoms, affecting aesthetics or cannot be excluded from malignancy, surgery should be performed.
3.Hashimoto’s thyroiditis: There is no special treatment and in principle, surgery is not suspected. After clinical diagnosis, treatment should be determined by the size of the thyroid gland and the presence or absence of symptoms of compression. If the thyroid gland is small and has no symptoms of compression, it can be followed up without treatment for the time being. If the thyroid gland is significantly enlarged and has symptoms of compression, it should be treated. Conservative medical treatment is mainly thyroxine therapy, anti-thyroid therapy, and hormone therapy. If Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is combined with nodules, local pressure symptoms or if cancer is suspected, surgical treatment is indicated. The main goal of surgical treatment is to remove large solitary nodules in order to relieve pressure. However, hypothyroidism can easily occur after surgical treatment.
Generally speaking, the treatment plan of thyroid tumor should be individualized. Regardless of the treatment method, in principle, the decision should be based on the patient’s condition. Generally the following conditions require surgical treatment: ① there are local symptoms, ranging from neck discomfort to severe compression symptoms. ② Huge goiter that affects work, life and aesthetics, ③ A goiter that progresses rapidly and malignancy cannot be excluded ④ A retrosternal goiter. ⑤ Those with abnormal thyroid function, such as secondary hyperthyroidism.
What should I pay attention to when I have thyroid tumor? How to prevent?
1. Avoid eating greasy (such as rooster, goose, pork, beef and mutton, carp, shrimp, crab, etc.), spicy (such as raw onion, ginger, garlic, chili, etc.) and fried foods.
2, prohibit smoking and alcohol.
3, eat more: seaweed, nori and fresh vegetables, fruits.
As to how people should prevent the occurrence of thyroid tumor, the causes of thyroid tumor are not very clear yet, so there is no particularly good means of prevention. However, regular medical checkups are a good way to detect thyroid tumors early. In addition, psychologists believe that the occurrence of tumor has a great connection with people’s mood, and long-term depression and sadness are very likely to induce cancer.
When thyroid tumor needs surgery, what is the most worrying thing for patients?
For a patient with thyroid disease, he/she is not only concerned about whether the thyroid tumor is benign or malignant? Does it require surgery? And is the surgery safe? At the same time, they are also very concerned about the size and healing of the neck wound, especially for those young patients.
It is worth mentioning that neck wound healing is not only related to the surgeon’s suturing technique, but also to the patient’s own skin type, i.e., whether the patient is a scar. If the patient is a keloid, even if the surgeon closes the wound well, the patient will still have a scar on the neck wound. For those patients with scarred thyroid who are very concerned about the neck wound, it is recommended to choose scarless lumpectomy thyroid surgery on the neck.