They say thyroid cancer is the easy cancer, the good cancer, the Cadillac of cancers to have. Why do they say this? Because out of all the cancers, thyroid cancer is typically a slow growing cancer with an over 90% cure rate. But the truth is people still do die of thyroid cancer. Young people. Old people. People who matter. There are people who are desperately waiting for a cure to metastatic thyroid cancer. The truth about thyroid cancer is this: While over 90% do survive...thyroid cancer has over a 30% recurrence rate. Of those 30% that it recurs in...only 1/3rd of them will ever truly be cancer free. While you can live indefinitely with slow growing metastatic thyroid cancer that is responsive to radioactive iodine, the 10 year survival rate for RAI resistant/PET+ thyroid cancer is only 10%. One of the biggest myths about thyroid cancer is that young people under 45 do not get serious RAI resistant metastatic cancer. That is just not true, while it is rare it DOES happen. By now you have heard of the movie and book The Fault in Our Stars...this was inspired by a metastatic thyroid cancer patient named Esther Earl who died at 16 of thyroid cancer. Young people can and do die of thyroid cancer. Even if you are lucky enough to not have metastatic thyroid cancer, living without a thyroid isnt easy. It drastically effects a thyroid cancer patients mood and behavior. It causes us hair problems, skin problems, weight problems, and other health issues. RAI treatment carries with it a huge risk of secondary cancers and side effects that we are forced to deal with for the rest of our lives. Due to the costs of our lifelong treatments, thyroid cancer is the #2 cancer to cause medical bankruptcy...second only to lung cancer. There is nothing easy about that and we sure as heck can not afford that Cadillac they talked about. There is nothing EASY about living with cancer or a cancer diagnosis. The mental, physical, spiritual, and financial toll is something only a thyroid cancer patient can understand. September is Thyroid Cancer Awareness Month. I highly urge you to support thyroid cancer awareness and check your neck! I also urge you to support thyroid cancer research so that one day every thyroid cancer patient has a cure. If you would like to learn more about thyroid cancer and donate to the cause please visit thyca.org
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 15:03:48 +0000
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