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Follow Up & Monitoring for Recurrence

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OncoLink
Last Modified: August 14, 2012

Question

If I had surgery to remove my thyroid and cancer, can it come back? How will my doctor know if my thyroid cancer comes back after I finished all my treatments/procedures and things seem ok?

Answer

Rachel Kelz, MD, MSCE, at Penn Medicine responds,

Thyroid cancer recurs in 25% of people. The likelihood for recurrence depends of the specific characteristics of the tumor and the patient. There are several staging systems that can help predict the likelihood of recurrence. You should have regularly scheduled appointments with your endocrinologist. The exact testing required will be determined by your blood test results and usually a high resolution neck ultrasound.

This question and answer was part of OncoLink's Brown Bag Web Chat Series. View the entire transcript of Focus on Thyroid Cancer.