Thyroid cancer and around 370 people died from the disease in 2012. Thyroid cancer Thyroid cancer is cancer that develops from the tissues of the thyroid gland. It is a disease in which cells grow abnormally and have the potential to spread to other parts of the body. Symptoms can include swelling or a lump in the neck. Cancer can also occur in the thyroid after spread from other locations, in which case it is not classified as thyroid cancer. Risk factors include radiation exposure at a young age, having an enlarged thyroid, and family history. There are four main types –
Computed tomography of the thyroid (PTCs) (Fig. 3). Incidentally detected cancers tend to be smaller in size and less likely to have distant metastasis, as compared to clinically suspected thyroid cancers. On CT scans, a malignant lesion is suspected when the margins are ill-defined and there is extra-thyroid extension, lymph node involvement, or invasion of the surrounding structures. The absence of these features does not exclude malignant tumours, especially papillary, follicular, and medullary thyroid carcinomas (Fig. 3). Therefore, ultrasound is the modality of choice for thyroid lesion evaluation, due to its superior spatial resolution compared to CT examinations. Sonographic features of malignancy are micro-calcifications, acoustic