Hi andrea59,
I am not a doctor, but I have recently had some thyroid ultrasounds and thyroid surgery so I'm a little familiar with reading ultrasounds. Your right thyroid lobe size looks slightly enlarged (looking at all three dimensions, I think normal would be 4.0-4.8cm by 1.0-1.8cm by 0.8-1.6cm). This enlarged size may be due to that nodule on the right side though.
As for your thyroid nodule - most thyroid nodules are benign (90%). The size of your nodule (>2cm), its shape (bilobular), and the fact that it has both cystic and solid components make it more suspicious, and I would definitely get it biopsied sooner than a year from now, but there is a good chance it is not cancer. When you do the FNB, there are three (or four) possible results - benign, suspicious, malignant, and inconclusive. Malignant means cancer and you definitely want to have the nodule removed (usually a total thyroidectomy). Suspicious usually means it looks like it could be a follicular cancer or could be a benign adenoma, so you often have a choice of watching it or having surgery (I had a suspicious neoplasm and ended up having a lobectomy - it was papillary thyroid cancer so I had a "completion" surgery later). Inconclusive often means they just don't get enough cells out of the biopsy to make a determination, and I bring that up because I know with nodules with cystic components sometimes the cyst interferes with getting enough cells.
I wouldn't immediately jump to the conclusion that you have thyroid cancer, your nodule has some more suspicious characteristics which increases the likelihood, but doesn't mean cancer. My suspicious nodule was small (1.1cm) with smooth margins, no calcification or blood vessel infiltration, and ended up being papillary thyroid cancer, but my 60 year old aunt was going through thyroid biopsies at the same time I was, and her nodules had more suspicious characteristics by ultrasound (larger, calcifications, blood vessel infiltration, irregular borders) and hers were benign, so just having more suspicious characteristics does not mean it is cancer!
Please don't freak out. Odds are low that yours is cancer. Even if it is, most thyroid nodules grow very slowly, and most thyroid cancer is very treatable.
As for thyroid surgery - living dependent on thyroid hormone for the rest of my life (I'm 38 years old) is not something I look forward to (I had my surgery in August and I'm still trying to get to the right level of hormone), but my grandmother had her thyroid removed at 47 and lived for 30 years after that, so I know it's doable, and now thyroid cancer is one less thing I need to worry about. I was nervous before both surgeries, but I had an excellent surgeon and no complications.
My thoughts - get a fine needle biopsy. It's hard to give advice on whether it is cancer or not, because until the biopsy, (and sometimes not even until surgery), it is impossible to tell. When you have more information about your nodule, you'll be in a better position to know what the next step is in your treatment or follow up.
Best of luck with your biopsy, and let us know if you have any more questions - I'm pretty sure I was most anxious when I was at the biopsy stage of my thyroid cancer journey, so I can empathize with what you are going through!
Nodules are very common and it's not time to freak out... :-) First, you should know that less than 5% of all thyroid nodules turn out to be cancer; however, your nodule is quite large and I'm assuming your doctor has arranged for an FNA to be sure.
The report doesn't give a lot of information so it's hard to draw a conclusion. That, along with the statement that "At minimum a follow up in one years time should be carried out" tells me there's a good chance your nodule is not cancerous. If the radiologist really thought it was cancer, the report would give more details of the ultrasound and recommend FNA immediately. Get the FNA anyway, just to be sure, because that's the only way to rule out or confirm cancer.
That said, have you been diagnosed with a previous thyroid condition, such as hyper or hypothyroidism? Do you take any thyroid medication of any kind? Have you had any blood tests done to test thyroid function? Nodules often appear with Hashimoto's or Graves Disease, which are autoimmune conditions that cause hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism. Hypo or hyperthyroidism can cause goiter (swollen thyroid), along with nodules.