Thyroid Cancer
The care of patients with thyroid cancer at White Plains Hospital is highly customized and involves a team of experts who collaborate to provide seamless care. We have endocrinologists who are experts in the field of thyroid and parathyroid disease and work closely with surgeons who are specially trained in endocrine surgery. The Endocrine Surgery Program also includes experts in the fields of radiology and nuclear medicine, offering onsite diagnostic imaging and image-guided biopsy utilizing the most advanced diagnostic techniques and equipment. Our team of pathologists provides onsite, real-time interpretation of thyroid biopsies.
While the vast majority of thyroid nodules are benign, more than 64,000 new cases of thyroid cancer will be diagnosed in 2016 making it one of the more commonly diagnosed cancers in the United States and one of the most common cancers for women. The two main risk factors for thyroid cancer include radiation exposure and family history.
Thyroid cancer is often treatable. The overall five-year survival rate is 98 percent. Treatment for thyroid cancer depends on the cell type, tumor size, and whether the cancer has spread elsewhere. Most patients have total surgical removal of the entire thyroid gland (thyroidectomy). Some patients may require removal of lymph nodes in the neck, doses of radioactive iodine, chemotherapy, or radiation therapy. Patients who have had the thyroid removed require thyroid hormone replacement, which slows the growth of any thyroid cancer cells possibly lurking in the body after surgery.