What Are the Treatments for Follicular Thyroid Cancer Without Surgery?

Follicular thyroid cancer affects women more often than males and usually is diagnosed after the age of 40. Doctors strongly encourage surgery as treatment but some other limited options are available.

Significance

• Follicular thyroid cancer grows in the follicular cells of the thyroid gland and is the second-most common form of the disease, accounting for approximately 15 percent of all cases.

Identification

• The treatments for follicular thyroid cancer without surgery are the same as those for other forms of thyroid carcinoma. Non-invasive options are limited, and physicians consider surgical removal the best option. "Surgery is the therapy of choice," according to the National Cancer Institute.

Treatments

• Some non-surgical treatments do exist. Radioactive iodine is taken orally and used to kill cancerous thyroid cells in the gland itself as well as those spreading elsewhere. The hormone replacement medication levothyroxine minimizes production of hormones that encourage the growth of cancerous cells.

Radiation

• Chemotherapy is an option for those affected by mutated thyroid cells. Additionally, external radiation therapy utilizes a machine to focus radiation on the body. "External radiation therapy is used mainly to treat people with advanced thyroid cancer that does not respond to radioactive iodine therapy," according to The Thyroid Cancer Survivors Association.

Developments

• Alcohol ablation is a new technique that does not require surgery and benefits people with thyroid tumors resistant to radioactive iodine therapy . "Physicians use the treatment mainly for patients with limited recurrence in the neck, either lymph nodes or thyroid bed," according to the Mayo Clinic.