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Has anyone heard of the Afirma test? Can that be done after the fact on a FNA test?

I had a recent FNA with indeterminate results. Surgeon wants to take out half of my thyroid to see what's up. I just read about the Afirma test, which says 75% of those types of surgeries are unnecessary.  Anyone have any data?
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Yes, I had Afirma in 2018.  Biopsy and determination of suspicious on April 12th (ish) 2018, results from Afirma about 10 days-2 weeks later.

My suspicious nodule was "suspicious for neoplasm" with Hurthle cells present during the biopsy.  If the Afirma test came back benign, we would not have done surgery.  The test came back suspicious with an approximately 50% risk of cancer, so I had a right thyroid lobectomy (right half removed), June 21, 2018.  Unfortunately, my suspicious nodule plus two more nodules (my thyroid was lots of nodules) were cancerous, so I had to have another surgery August 23, 2018 to remove the rest of the thyroid.

The good news was despite the cancer diagnosis and more nodules cancerous than expected, there was no evidence the cancer left the thyroid and we decided not to do radioactive iodine, and I just had my almost 2 year appointment with the endocrinologist and the thyroglobulin test (something they use to measure whether there are thyroid cells still in the body) came back at zero (I'm sure it wasn't zero exactly, but it sounds like it was very low, especially for someone who hasn't had RAI).

The Afirma test gives three results:

benign, which is greater than 90% chance of not cancer,

suspicious, which is 50% risk of cancer, some that come back suspicious are benign, some like mine are not

and malignant, greater than 99% that it is cancer

I was still hesitant even going through the surgery because I knew there was a good chance mine was not cancer even though it came back suspicious with Afirma, but I'm glad I did (this was after Afirma).  

Funnily enough, after my cancer diagnosis, my aunt kept sending me info about the number of unnecessary thyroid surgeries and how people can live for years with slow progressing thyroid cancer, but my thyroid was not just full of nodules but inflamed and being destroyed by my immune system, so sometimes thyroid surgery is necessary.

If your doctor is willing to do Afirma, it is worth seeing what the result comes back as, and have a plan in place with what the next step is once you get that result.  My insurance did not cover Afirma, but they have a financial program based on income that can keep your own costs very low for this test, depending on your financial situation.

Good luck, and I hope all goes well for you!
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Oh I just read the "after the fact" part.  The doctor who did my fine needle biopsy is also a pathologist and could give me the results right away.  After he gave me the results, he took another biopsy to send off for Afirma, but I don't think biopsy doctors/pathologists are that common, so most people probably do have to get another sample to send for Afirma, unless they still have tissue left from your biopsy.  They might need to do another FNA to send the tissue sample (some smeared on a slide, some in a tube to get the DNA).
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