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Thyroid cancer occurs in the cells of the thyroid — a butterfly-shaped gland located at the base of your neck, just below your Adam's apple. Your thyroid produces hormones that regulate your heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature and weight.
Thyroid cancer isn't common in the United States. About 37,000 people are diagnosed with thyroid cancer each year, according to the National Cancer Institute. Thyroid cancer rates seem to be increasing, which doctors think may be due to new technology that allows them to find small thyroid cancers that may not have been found previously.
Symptoms
Thyroid cancer, especially early in its development, may not cause any symptoms at all.
But as a thyroid cancer grows and develops, it is more likely to cause symptoms. Some of the symptoms that may point to thyroid cancer include the following:
- A lump, or nodule in the neck -- especially in the front of the neck, in the area of the Adam's apple. (Note: Sometimes, the lump or nodule will be growing quickly.) (Find out how to do a Thyroid
- Neck Check to look for lumps or enlargement.)
- Enlargement of the neck
- Enlarged lymph nodes in the neck
- Hoarseness, difficulty speaking normally, voice changes
- Difficulty swallowing, or a choking feeling
- Difficulty breathing
- Pain in the neck or throat, including pain from the neck to the ears
- Sensitivity in the neck -- discomfort with neckties, turtlenecks, scarves, necklaces
- Persistent or chronic cough not due to allergies or illness
- Asymmetry in the thyroid (big nodule on one side, nothing on the other)
- Nodules that when manipulated give the impression that the entire thyroid is moving (this is often a sign of an aggressive cancer)
- Nodules that cause the wind pipe to go to one side of the neck, as well as cause superior vena cava syndrome
Some particularly aggressive thyroid tumors can go to the brain and cause neurological symptoms.
Thyroid Cancer
