My friend works for a top general surgeon at a local hospital - we have a cancer treatment facility within the three hospital network... He's a smart guy and good at his job. My friend had her thyroid checked - local ent (very good) looked at her pathology - and scans and said, well the pathology was inconclusive (for thyroid cancer) if you are concerned because the nodule has grown I would, recommend removing half of your thyroid as precautionary. (Remember he is reliant on the pathologist) her family dr. Says I think you should go see dr. Irish. (My ENT out of our main cancer center) she was content to follow through with the advice of the local ENT since her boss (the top surgeon) concurred with his recommendation. She ended up with an appointment with my dr. Anyway so she figured she would go see him just to be on the safe side since the appointment was already booked. She walked into his appointment and he was telling her that she had thyroid cancer and her entire thyroid should be removed as she had a nodule on the other side as well. My friend almost fell off her chair. She said what? It was inconclusive - my dr. Said... No you have thyroid cancer. You have two of the three markers in your tissue sample that we look for - the other one can only be discovered upon removal of the thyroid. Trust me you have thyroid cancer. We also asked for the tissue samples to be sent to us and our pathologist concurs.

It really is about how good and experienced your dr. Is and the pathologist is. I wouldn't risk my life on a maybe.

Hugs. (She had her whole thyroid removed btw and her boss - the big wig surgeon was scratching his head... The pathologist clearly missed the markers, and most importantly there's a good chance he / she may have missed them on the previous biopsy as well.)