my dad's cancer

1sunnygal

my dad was diagnosed in march with medullary thyroid cancer which spread to lymph nodes, spine, pelvis and skull. he is getting 12 radiation treatments to his back and thyroid. Everything I've read shows surgery to be the first line of defense, but the surgeon said his tumor was wrapped around too many things and would be too risky at this time as dad is having no trouble eating or swallowing. The bone pain is excrutiating and drs say the radiation will help with this so his morphine dose can be lowered. Anyone out there have a similar situation--can you tell me what we're looking at here? I hate to see him in pain like this, he's lost 60 pounds and due to the pain, he hasn't done much of anything for the last year. Will the radiation help him out? If he's not operated on, what can we expect to run into? Thanks for listening and for any info.

Rustifox

Hi, Sunny. Thyca.org, located here:
http://www.thyca.org
has a group that has medullary thyroid cancer members. They can likely help you the best with information about how well radiation works, etc:
http://www.thyca.org/email.htm#medullary

Another option is to also join the advance thyroid cancer group - here are the links:
http://www.thyca.org/email.htm#advanced

It is free to sign up for yahoo groups, and you can either have the emails come to your inbox, or choose to 'read it on the web' at their yahoo.groups websites.

Radiation treatments like your Dad is recieving isn't often used with papillary or follicular, unless it is very advanced, so you may not find anyone here who has had external beam radiation here... most of us are treated with internal radiation, swallowing I-131 for our treatments.

Hope the above links can help you find more details on your Dad's treatments. Medullary is treated alot differently than the common types found in many of us, as you know, so it's best if you try to contact the medullary group for the best information.