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Below, week by week, is what OnCo's record of Papillary thyroid cancer says about the first two months: the order is typical, the timing is yours to ask about. Papillary thyroid cancer is the commonest and most curable thyroid cancer. Most people are treated with surgery, some with radioactive iodine afterwards, and many small tumours can simply be watched. Only the rare tumours that stop taking up iodine need targeted drugs. Sections appear only where the record has something to say. Orientation, not medical advice.
Staging tests establish exactly what and where the cancer is. Everything else follows from the answers.
Ask which of these were tested and what the results were; see the report reader for what each value means.
These specialties appear in the standard of care for this cancer. In most centres they meet weekly as a tumour board to agree each plan; you can ask when yours was discussed and what was decided.
A second opinion from a centre that treats many similar cases is normal, not rude; the standard of care tells you what to compare it against.
Each row is a setting from the standard of care, in the order it usually arises. Not all will apply to you; your stage and biomarkers decide which do. The guideline grade, where recorded, says how strong the evidence is.
Lobectomy or total thyroidectomy without radioactive iodine (ESTIMABL2, IoN); levothyroxine and thyroglobulin follow-up.
Total thyroidectomy with neck dissection where nodes are involved, radioactive iodine ablation, TSH suppression.
Active surveillance with ultrasound or lobectomy; surveillance is safe in most adults after the Kuma Hospital and Memorial Sloan Kettering series.
Lenvatinib (SELECT) or sorafenib (DECISION); selpercatinib for RET fusions, larotrectinib or entrectinib for NTRK fusions, dabrafenib plus trametinib for BRAF V600E.
Generated from this cancer's standard of care, biomarkers and open problems. Take the group that matches where you are. To tick, add your own and print, open the one-page appointment sheet.
Much of what helps in the first weeks is free if you know to ask: testing, helplines, rides and lodging, second opinions, trial travel.
Every term links to the glossary.