Doctors explain the mystery behind this common disease, its one major symptom, and more.
Thyroid
cancer is one of those cancers you’ve probably heard of but may not
know much about. The disease occurs when abnormal cells grow in your
thyroid, a gland in your neck that makes hormones that regulate the way
your body uses energy. And according to data from the National Cancer Institute,
thyroid cancer is the opposite of rare; it’s the eighth most common
cancer in the U.S., and makes up nearly four percent of all new cancer
cases in this country. Here, five things all young women need to know
about the disease.
[post_ads_2]1. It's more common in women.
Experts
aren’t sure why. “It’s not common before puberty, but [when it does
occur] we see an equal number of cases in boys and girls,” Melanie
Goldfarb, M.D., an endocrine surgeon and director of the Endocrine Tumor
Program at California’s John Wayne Cancer Institute at Providence Saint
John's Health Center, tells SELF. “After puberty, for some reason, the
incidence becomes 3-to-1, women to men. We don’t really know why.”
Bryan
McIver , M.D., Ph.D., program leader of head, neck, and endocrine
oncology at the Moffitt Cancer Center, tells SELF that it may be due to
the fact that women's thyroids expand and contract during menstrual cycles and pregnancies—and
with repeat expansion and contraction comes an increased risk that
something will go wrong. But, he points out, this hasn’t been proven.
2. It affects young people, too.
According
to the National Cancer Institute, 15 percent of new thyroid cancer
cases are diagnosed when someone is 20 to 34 years old. “It’s the number
one cancer in women in their 20s and the number two in women in their
30s,” Goldfarb says. But doctors also don’t know why this is the case.
[post_ads_2]3. No one really knows what causes it.
There’s
a lot of mystery surrounding thyroid cancer, and its cause is no
exception. In addition to the expansion and contraction theory, Goldfarb
says there’s been some speculation that it could be linked to diet, but
nothing has been proven. McIver notes that radiation exposure (think:
treatment for leukemia; not dental X-rays) has been connected to it, as
have genetics for certain types of thyroid cancer. However, doctors
haven’t been able to ID what that gene may be.
4. There’s one major symptom of thyroid cancer.
Your thyroid helps regulate your weight, metabolism,
and muscle control, but thyroid cancer actually doesn’t impact that,
says Goldfarb. Instead, the main symptom is a lump in your neck. Other
than that, you probably won’t feel any different (although you may also
experience related issues like pain or swelling in the neck, hoarseness,
trouble swallowing or breathing, and a consistent cough, according to
the American Cancer Society).
“How your thyroid works is very different from the growth,” she
explains. “A benign or cancerous growth isn’t going to make your thyroid function any less or more than usual.”
5. It’s almost always treatable.
And
that’s especially the case in younger people. There are some aggressive
forms that can be deadly, but “in 99 percent of the cases, you’re cured
with surgery,” Goldfarb says. “Once we catch it, we can take care of
it.”
