Doctor Thyroid

Weighing treatment options for thyroid cancer, with deep consideration for the patient’s lifestyle, could become the new norm in assessing whether surgery is the best path.  Dr. Allen Ho states, “if a patient is a ballerina or an opera singer, or any other profession that could be jeopardized due to undesired consequences of thyroid cancer surgery, then the best treatment path maybe active surveillance.”  Undesired consequences of thyroid cancer surgery could be vocal cord paralysis, damage to the parathyroid glands resulting in calcium deficiencies, excessive bleeding or formation of a major blood clot in the neck, shoulder nerve damage, numbness, wound infection, and mental impairment due to hypothyroid-like symptoms.  Or in the case of a ballerina, undesired scarring could jeopardize a career.    The above risks occur in approximately 10% of thyroid cancer surgeries.  Although, some thyroid cancer treatment centers have a much more reduced incidence of undesired consequences, while others much higher.  In