Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer

Hi I was wondering if anyone else is either dealing with this same disease , anaplastic thyroid cancer? My father was diagnosed in November. We have been through a combo of chemo and radiation and we are now on chemo alone. It has been a long rough journey for both of us and my family. If there is anyone else out there we'd love to hear from you.

Thanks.

I was diagnosed with medullary thyroid cancer at 29 years old. I had my thyroid removed, then two years later, a neck dissection and radiation. Anaplastic is a tough diagnosis and it's kind of hard to relate to a lot of folks who have the more "common" papillary and follicular because they have the radioactive iodide treatment and thyroid surgery only. Have you been to thyca.org? It's a wonderful website and they have different e-mail list serves for the different types of thyroid cancer. I know they have a anaplastic group; I don't know how active they are. You and your father may be able to connect with some folks there. Best of luck to you and your dad.

Thanks a lot for the info.

Dear Friend,

My brother was diagnosed with an undifferentiated papillary thyroid cancer at the end of April this year.  The doctors are calling it undifferentiated because it is acting like anaplastic thyroid cancer, but has none of the markings as such.  

Beau just finished his 35th treatment of radiation this last monday, and although there has been some shrinkage of the tumor, the doctors are not giving us much hope as to a cure.  My brother is 23 and the doctors plainly stated that if he was just 30 or 40 years older they would recommend putting him in hospice.  

As is, the doctors have rocommended that we try the iodine pill to see if that will help at all...it's really just a guessing game at this point.  We try one thing and if it doesn't work, we try the next and keep going.  

My family and I are Christians, and we believe that God's healing power is still alive today.  The doctor's don'e give us much hope, but we know that with God, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.  This is the only hope we have left.  

Having such a horrible diagnosis given to a loved one is a hard thing to hear.  I'll be praying for you and yours, remember God is always listening.

With love,

Cherrie