Treatments for reoccurance?

firefly71 · January 2009

Hi everyone!

I'm a newbie. I was diagnosed in 2001 with papillary carcinoma. I had one nodule on the left side of my thyroid. I had a total thyroidectomy and RAI. All treatment was completed by April 2001. I have been on Levoxyl ever since.
I had a clean scan in September of 2001 and again in Dec of 2005. I went to my Endo in December 2008 and he drew my blood and suggested I have a neck CT with contrast and a chest X-ray since it has been 3 yrs since I had a scan. I had those tests done last Tuesday (Jan 6th).
I have not had the results back yet. I also haven't heard from my Endo about the bloodwork. I am hoping that this meant the markers were undetectable (*crossing fingers*!)
I am a worrywort and I managed to panic myself about recurrances quite a lot

(
What kind of recurrance do people usually get? and what kind of treatment is given?
I am REALLY trying not to freak out.

THANKS!

gmthul · January 2009

I had what some doctors term a "recurrence" and others have called "regrowth". I had my TT in 6/08, with negative tumor markers and a clean U/S at 3 months post in September. By October, my tumor markers, thyroglobulin were strongly positive along with my WBS. I received another dose of RAI in November and will have another scan in March. I think you can expect more RAI if you suffer a recurrence, unless this new tumor doesn't take up iodine or is in a difficult location to treat, in which case chemo or external beam radiation is sometimes used (but that is really the rarest cases).

Good luck and don't worry too much! I have totally been in your shoes.
Genevieve
http://turquoisegates.blogspot.com

gmthul · January 2009

Group suggestion
May I also suggest you join the Yahoo! Thyca group, which is much more active and will get you quick answers to all your questions from other survivors.

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Thyca/

Treatments for reoccurance?

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