Biopsy suspicious for papillary carcinoma. Now what?

[JoBa]

My biopsy results are in and they are suspicious for papillary carcinoma.  I go back to the ENT on Aug 3 to discuss options, but he said that surgery wasn't necessarily the only option.  I pried about as much information from him as I was going to get over the phone.  Can anyone on the form provide some insight?

[beccajuhasz]

I'm curious to know what has happened since.  I am going through the exact things you went through.  I don't know what to do.

[sayeer]

my report came back as suspicious papillary carcinoma as well. My lymphnodes are fine and all my blood tests are fine also. My doc wants to take the whole thyroid out. Is this neccessary? Reading up on the suspicious diagnosis means that it is not certain if it is cancer. I am scared that if I get my thyroid taken out and it comes back as not cancer, well I am out of a thyroid.. Any suggestions would help...please...

[MJ13]

My FNA came back suspicious for  papillary carcinoma.  That pathology report mentions something about grooves being in the nuclei.  Did some online research and found out that is one of the signs they look for in determining cancer.  That couple with the fact I was diagnosed with Graves Disease, it a was a no brainer to get the TT.  I also opted to do the RAI even though my 1 cancerous nodule was .9 mm.  Living through the LID and hypohe// for three wks was well....he//, but I don't regret it for a moment because I know I've doing everything in my power to kick some thyca buttisimo and prevent it from returning!!!

[imedicmommy]

My original FNA was negative but due to thyroid size they decided to do a partial. Interestingly enough, the right lobe which was huge 9cm by 11cm was completely benign but in another area of ectopic tissue (this is rare don't worry about this) they found a 5mm encapsulated tumor so the decision was made to do a TT. They took out the left side last week as well as a large mass in my chest which was all full of papillary cancer as well as 3 out of 6 lymph nodes involved. Now I am looking at surgery number 3 to remove more masses that have become more obvious as large amounts of tissue have been removed.

My advice, get it out, you never know what they will find. I'm shocked as he** that they found all this.
Good luck to you
Margie

[imedicmommy]

Oh and my dr. also consulted with at least one other dr that I know of and maybe two (because of that stupid ectopic tissue) and I was kind of glad, at least he knows that he doesn't know it all and is willing to listen to others that might know more.
Hope this helps

Margie

[redhed87]

My ultrasound originally showed a 2.5cm complex nodule on my left lobe and another small one on my right lobe, but they didn't seem too concerned about that one.  They never told me how long it took to grow, but from what I understand it is slow growing and mine was pretty big.  The final path report did say .1cm- which is teeny tiny, Maybe it was part of the 2.5cm mass originally and broke off or something.  I also had it in two lymph nodes.  I bet I had this for awhile for it to spread like that.  I bet those follicular adenomas could have gotten ugly later (they had hurthle cells, but showed no carcinoma)  Whatever that means.

[ChitChatNine]

Is the .1cm as tiny as 1.0mm if I read that correctly ?? If so, you had one heck of an awesome pathologist looking out for you.

Did they know you had two nodules when you went in or did only the larger one show up on ultrasound?

My last ? .. did they give any idea how long it took for this to grow to the size it was removed at?

That is what my orig. nodules were:  follicular adenomas or in English overgrowth of thyroid tissue.

Hope you don't mind me asking these ?'s.

C~

[redhed87]

My biopsy came back as highly suspicious for papillary carcinoma also.  I was struggling with the notion that "what if it really isn't cancer?"  My surgeon put me at rest by telling me he was going to do a partial, do a frozen section (pathologist checks it while I am sleeping on the operating table) and if it does confirm cancer, then he would go and take the rest out.  I had  2.3cm and .1cm multifocal pap. carcinoma as well as 2 out of 10 lymph nodes infected.  I had follicular adenomas on the other side- not cancer.  I'm glad the cancer is out of my body.  Good luck and we're all here for you.  Kim

[ChitChatNine]

My original FNA was atypical for follicular cancer and both nodules turned out to be 100% fully benign upon final biopsy after surgery...both on the table and 48hrs later.  BUT, they did find two small areas of Papillary Cancer elsewhere in the gland (similar to NJYogini's story) .. the two areas were 0.4mm and 5mm respectively ... no lymph node involvement and fully encapsulated.

I had 4 opinions after my partial thyroidectomy in January and have decided to watch and wait.  3 opinions suggested ok to leave it in and the 4th suggested TT w/RAI afterwards.  Since the small nodule on my intact side is very small @ 3mm and is stable at the last u/sound with looking exactly the same as 6 mos ago, we decided to wait .. it looks just like the other two which were benign.

Yeah, I am taking a chance keeping the other side in.  They say 30% of the time it travels across the isthmus.

Technically speaking I fit into the protocol for TT based on having two of these microcarinomas found incidentally and not just one but the protocol only changed a yr ago so 3 of my 4 opinions suggested I take a more conservative route in that who knows if the protocol will switch back sometime soon if they don't see any data changes, etc.

The bottom line is that I have awful scar tissue healing with complications and my endo has suggested no more surgery unless absolutely indicated as the scar tissue can cause more harm than the surgery doing good ...

I am 80% happy with my decision with the other 20% always available to have it out.

They told me that atypical findings have a 25% chance of turning into cancer if left in the thyroid so I opted w/o a doubt for the partial.

If I had to do it all over I would have had the whole thing out as I am on Synthroid the rest of my life anyway, bcz the other side in non-functioning which happens I found out after the fact 30% of the time.  So not only for Ca supression am I on it, but for life.

Cheryl (partial 1/07)

[JoBa]

I'm still sort of stunned, although I suspected what the result would be.  I really want to get started on treatment right away, and although I will listen to the various options, I am leaning toward TT (assuming they even present that as an option). The nodule was large and complex and I would just as soon have the whole thing gone.  I'd rather struggle with the meds than with uncertainty and repeat surgeries.  My husband agrees with this and I am hoping the ENT will too. Actually, my ENT is calling in one of his partners for the next appointment. I suspect she is an expert on thyroid stuff. I don' know whether or not to be relieved or concerned that he is bringing in another doc.

[dart frog]

I had TT on july 9th for a multi nodular goiter. 8 nodules and none was cancer......I didnt really have a choice of doing the surgery do to  breathing problems,but regardless if ANY had come back  positive/suspicious I would have had it removed.

I seem to be an oddball on the board......Having a heck of a time recovering from surgery but am doing really well on the meds.....have the first blood work done next week but expect it too be perfect.

[NJ Yogini]

I also had a suspicious biopsy report so I had a partial thyroidectomy in Feb.  Unfortunately, the pathology report 10 days post surgery said there was a 6mm papillary carcinoma, completely excised.  My doctor and I concluded that the best thing to do was do a complete thyroidectomy, which happend 3 months after the 1st surgery.  All in all, the surgeries went quite well and the incision has healed very nicely.  Everyone is different.....some have it easy and some don't.

I'm 2 1/2 months post TT and am still working on getting my levels where they need to be.  I'm feeling pretty hypo and am looking forward to my next round of bloodwork next week.  I'm having to practice patience....that's hard on us type A's!

Good luck, Linda


Good luck.  

[At The End of My Rope]

I say get it out....I'm very glad I did no it has not been easy, but the Cancer is out of my body..Keep us posted.