Posted By: wendys Is thyroid cancer a head and neck cancer - 05-11-2012 12:08 PM
Hi all, I have a friend who 22 year old daughter just found out that she has thyroid cancer. Is this considerd a head and neck/oral cancer. I want to refer her to this site if it would be helpful for her.

Thanks
Posted By: Cheryld Re: Is thyroid cancer a head and neck cancer - 05-11-2012 01:35 PM
Hi there - I don't think it really is... It may scare the crap out of her to come here despite the great support offered. Thyroid cancer is a different treatment process, and generally a very very curable cancer. My husbands cousin had it at 25, and she's fine now, they removed lymph nodes and then emplanted radiation seeds, or gave her pills, so she was actually radioactive. I don't believe the do rads and chemo for thyroid, though often they do surgery and a thyroidectomy. She's more than welcome to drop in of course, but I'm not sure how much support other than emotional she'll get. I haven't seen a thyroid cancer here... Sorry she has to go through this but tell her she should be fine, it really is very very curable - though as with any cancer the treatment sucks. smile hugs
Posted By: wendys Re: Is thyroid cancer a head and neck cancer - 05-11-2012 02:43 PM
Thanks, yep, I figured this site would scare the crap out of her, so I didn't want to recommend it without being sure.
Posted By: Charm2017 Re: Is thyroid cancer a head and neck cancer - 05-11-2012 05:29 PM
Wendy

It's not that the OCF site is so scary IMO although thyroid cancer has good survival rates with less complications than our cancer. You'd be better off referring her to the rest of the ACS workup on their website
Thyroid cancer survival by type and stage

From my experience with two thryoid cancer patients, their issues did not have much in common with mine, so a lot of the advice here would not be relevant.
Charm
Posted By: ChristineB Re: Is thyroid cancer a head and neck cancer - 05-11-2012 05:38 PM
I have briefly seen one or 2 thyroid patients over the past 5 years. Anyone is welcome but that illness is different than what most OC survivors deal with. I would follow Charm's link to get them some experienced assistance. Its very sad to hear your friend's daughter is only 22 and going to go thru cancer treatments. Best wishes to her and her family!
Posted By: Brian Hill Re: Is thyroid cancer a head and neck cancer - 05-11-2012 11:15 PM
Thyroid cancer IS a head and neck cancer. So are ocular, and auditory cancers, laryngeal cancers, and of course what we talk about here, oral cancer. Ironically brain cancers are NOT a head and neck cancer. Esophageal cancer when located in the neck is part of the group as well, but movers over to thoracic cancer when it gets closer to the stomach.

Thyroid cancers have very high survival rates, even if the thyroid has to be removed. Life long thyroid hormone supplements allow people that have that surgery to go on normally. Unlike oral and laryngeal cancers which are predominantly SCC, thyroid cancer is an endocrine system cancer and the causes are nothing like oral.

There are some groups out there for head and neck cancers, (with not so many people from each group represented, but to be the most specific I would turn her on to this group http://www.thyca.org/
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