Frozen Section Biopsy Reliable??

georgia_mom
georgia_mom Member Posts: 5
edited March 2014 in Thyroid Cancer #1
Does anyone have any info on whether or not the Frozen section biopsy is reliable for hurthle or follicular neoplasms? I had mine on Wednesday, but was wondering if anyone got a benign result with the frozen section, then malignant with the final biopsy?

Comments

  • JustAnnie
    JustAnnie Member Posts: 12
    #2
    Frozen Section Biopsy Reliable??
    I can only tell you from my experience...I had a tt November 17th. Surgeon did a frozen section right there during surgery, came back benign for any cancer. He was pretty confident it was not cancerous. However, upon pathology report a week later, it did show papillary cancer on both sides. So, I guess they are not always reliable. I know he also told me before surgery, we could just biopsy nodules but chances of missing cancer in the small biopsy samples were high.
  • djlrad
    djlrad Member Posts: 4
    #3
    frozen section bioposy
    I had a partial thyroidectomy with a frozen section that came back benign. My surgeon wanted a second opinion which was sent to the Mayo Clinic which came back positive for follicular cancer. I have read that it's difficult to diagnose follicular cancer with a frozen section. I then had to go back into surgery three weeks later to have the other half removed.
  • Survivor73
    Survivor73 Member Posts: 135
    #4
    djlrad said:

    frozen section bioposy
    I had a partial thyroidectomy with a frozen section that came back benign. My surgeon wanted a second opinion which was sent to the Mayo Clinic which came back positive for follicular cancer. I have read that it's difficult to diagnose follicular cancer with a frozen section. I then had to go back into surgery three weeks later to have the other half removed.

    my doctor's comment
    I am going through breast cancer as well as a recurrence of thyroid cancer.
    I have to now get my lymph nodes tested under my arm to see if the cancer in my breast has spread or not.
    If it is there, I will need another surgery to remove all the lymph nodes under my arm so I asked about this testing to do it all at once.
    According to my surgeon, it's only a 50% chance of accuracy doing this. Since he didn't want to leave me under for another 1/2 hr to do the test, when the accuracy is only 50-50, I will have to do another surgery if the lymph nodes are positive.

    Hope this helps.

    Take care.

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