Thyroid Cancer Treatments
At Stanford Health Care, we work carefully to determine the best treatment options for you and to prepare a treatment plan personalized for your needs. We work to maximize treatment success while minimizing the impact that thyroid cancer diagnosis and treatment can have on your life.
- Nationally recognized expertise in treating endocrine conditions, including advanced thyroid cancers and recurrent thyroid cancers needing reoperation.
- Team-based treatment planning by thyroid specialists from endocrinology, surgery, medical oncology, radiology, and nuclear medicine who come together to make recommendations on your case.
- Expert diagnosis that draws on advances in imaging and treatment, so that you have options for therapies from less invasive care to surgery.
- Comprehensive support services like speech pathology, voice and swallowing therapy, and emotional support to help with your specific symptoms and challenges.
- Genetic counseling to understand the risks to you and your family.
- Active clinical research program dedicated to finding more effective treatments for aggressive thyroid cancer.
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Interested in an Online Second Opinion?
The Stanford Medicine Online Second Opinion program offers you easy access to our world-class doctors. It’s all done remotely, and you don’t have to visit our hospital or one of our clinics for this service. You don’t even need to leave home!
Visit our online second opinion page to learn more.
Every cancer is different, even in the early stages. The best treatment for one person might not be the best treatment for another. Your doctor will help you make an informed decision about which options may be right for you. Your treatment plan may consist of one or any combination of the following:
Your care team may recommend surgery to diagnose, stage, or treat cancer.
If surgery seems like a good treatment option for you, you will meet with a surgical oncologist (cancer surgeon) to develop a plan. Surgery for thyroid cancer is different for every patient. Your surgical oncologist will work with you to determine the least invasive and most effective surgery for the type of thyroid cancer you have.
Our surgical team has expertise in:
- Thyroid lobectomy: Removing one lobe of your thyroid
- Total thyroidectomy: Removing your whole thyroid gland
- Lymph node dissection: Removing lymph nodes (small structures that are part of the immune system) where cancer has spread
- Resection: Removing locally advanced thyroid cancer that invades the larynx, trachea, esophagus, large blood vessels, or other structures
To achieve the best possible outcome, your care team may recommend combining surgery with other treatments, such as radioactive iodine or chemotherapy.
You may receive cancer medications for thyroid cancer by mouth, injection, or infusion. Our cancer doctors use several types of medications, including:
Radioactive iodine
This is the most common therapy given after surgery for thyroid cancer. It is given as a one time pill. Because thyroid cells take up iodine, the radioactive iodine travels to any thyroid tissue remaining in the body and kills the cancer cells.
You may need to isolate at home for a few days after taking radioactive iodine. We will give you specific instructions to follow after you return home to protect others from iodine exposure.
Chemotherapy
This group of medications stops the growth of rapidly dividing cells in the body, both cancerous and noncancerous. While powerful, chemotherapy can cause more side effects than other medications because it cannot distinguish between cancerous and healthy cells. Chemotherapy is a treatment option for almost anyone with cancer.
Targeted therapy
These medications slow the growth and spread of cancer by stimulating the immune system or interfering with specific parts of cancerous cells.
For this treatment to work, the cancer must have the specific markers (mutations) that the medication is designed to target. Our doctors look for the presence of these proteins by examining tissue samples taken during a biopsy.
Radiation therapy is rarely used for thyroid cancer. It is typically reserved for more aggressive or invasive tumors. Radiation therapy uses high-energy X-rays or other types of radiation to destroy cancer cells. Our cancer doctors that specialize in radiation treatments have years of experience safely and effectively treating thyroid cancer. Using the latest technology, we can precisely target tumors and minimize damage to nearby healthy tissue.
If your doctor recommends radiation therapy for you, they will speak to you about the best options. The types of radiation therapy for thyroid cancer treatment at Stanford Health Care include:
External beam radiation
We can also deliver radiation therapy through a machine outside of the body. We use this for more aggressive cases of thyroid cancer. External beam radiation therapy does not cause pain when it’s being delivered, so you won’t feel anything during your treatments. It does not make you radioactive. You can safely be around other people, including children, right after your treatment.
External beam radiation uses a machine called a linear accelerator (LINAC) to deliver radiation to the area of the thyroid where the cancer cells are found. Some of the types of external radiation we use include:
- 3D conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT): With this method, 3D images created using a CT or MRI machine help the doctor better target the tumor. The machine can aim radiation beams from many different angles to match the exact shape of the cancer.
- Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT): IMRT is similar to 3D-CRT, but the doctor can adjust how much radiation you get from each beam. This can help avoid nearby normal cells and potentially reduce side effects.
- Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) or stereotactic ablative radiation therapy (SABR): SBRT/SABR works similar to the first two methods, and the total amount of radiation you get is similar. But this method involves fewer doses that contain stronger amounts of radiation.
The primary type of thyroid cancer that can benefit from genetic counseling is medullary thyroid cancer, an uncommon type of thyroid cancer. Medullary thyroid cancer is linked to mutations in the RET gene. These mutations are seen in the genetic syndromes multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2 (MEN2) and familial medullary thyroid cancer (FMTC).
It’s important to receive expert care for inherited medullary thyroid cancer. Our endocrine genetics experts offer genetic counseling to help you make treatment planning decisions and assess your family’s risk. If your doctor suspects medullary thyroid cancer, genetic testing can help you understand if you inherited the cancer or if the cancer occurred on its own.
Clinical Trials for Thyroid Cancer
Clinical trials are research studies that evaluate a new medical approach, device, drug, or other treatment. As a Stanford Health Care patient, you may have access to the latest, advanced clinical trials through the Stanford Cancer Institute.
Open trials refer to studies that are currently recruiting participants or that may recruit participants soon. Closed trials are not currently enrolling additional patients.