Papillary Is Aggressive

Is there anyone out there with Stage IV Thyroid Papillary Ca?   This is a nonaggressive cancer but for some reason mine has chosen to be aggressive.   I am a 46 yo female who was diagnosed on 10/18/07, surgery 11/08/07 and next surgery is Monday 07/28/08.

 During the first surgery my thyroid was totally removed, 14 lymph nodes (10 were malignant) and a nodule in my neck muscle.   

My thryogobulin level is at a 7 and since my "nonaggressive papillary cancer" is being aggressive my MD's and I have decided to be aggressive too.  My neck will be cut bilaterally and all leftovers will be removed.  Including a nodule in my thyroid bed that was 1x1 cm 5 weeks ago and now is 2.6x1cm.  There are too many cysts/nodules to biospsy each one.

Every time I go in for a test the results are bigger, more numerous, etc.  I did have a PET scan that came back good. 

Do you know anything about the aggressiveness of papillary  ca?

I agree, ask for your report.  I have Tall Cell variant also, which is more agreesive and is more prone for reoccurance.  I am just starting out with this.  I had my TT May 28 and am scheduled to start LID Aug 5th with thyrogen and RAI to follow the next week.    You may have one of the variance - some of which are aggressive.

 Good Luck

Thank you for your responses. I called my Endo this morning and they say the ca may have just been there for a while and I didn't know it, so when it was discovered it was just in an active state.  I don't buy that answer.

I'm going to pull my path reports and look for any variances in the results. I will look for tall cell. 

I did research about 7 months ago and learned that some anaplastic thyroid ca is thought to be a genetic mutation from papillary. I'm probably just paranoid but if there are any genetic mutations going on, I want to make sure that it is not going toward anaplastic.

Hello Liz ~ Along with Leemg (hi!) and
W3spal, I also have (TCV) 'tall cell.'  Did you specifically ask your doctor about that?  Let us know.  We all want to learn as much as we can about this variant cell.  Most of us are new to this and if there is a more  aggressive treatment, I would like to know.  I wish you the best and please let us know how you are and what cells your pathology shows.Tara

On 7/23/2008 liz111 wrote:

Is there anyone out there with Stage IV Thyroid Papillary Ca?   This is a nonaggressive cancer but for some reason mine has chosen to be aggressive.   I am a 46 yo female who was diagnosed on 10/18/07, surgery 11/08/07 and next surgery is Monday 07/28/08.

 During the first surgery my thyroid was totally removed, 14 lymph nodes (10 were malignant) and a nodule in my neck muscle.   

My thryogobulin level is at a 7 and since my "nonaggressive papillary cancer" is being aggressive my MD's and I have decided to be aggressive too.  My neck will be cut bilaterally and all leftovers will be removed.  Including a nodule in my thyroid bed that was 1x1 cm 5 weeks ago and now is 2.6x1cm.  There are too many cysts/nodules to biospsy each one.

Every time I go in for a test the results are bigger, more numerous, etc.  I did have a PET scan that came back good. 

Do you know anything about the aggressiveness of papillary  ca?

Was told in beginning I had Stage III Papillary after having thyroid,lymph node, and parathyroid removed. Year later had rest of center compartment  removed with11 out of 21 lymph nodes being cancerous. They said this was all new growth. Never changed type or staging or gave me any other info. Go in Dec for more Thyrogen. Under 2 bodyscan, over....more RAI.We'll just  have to see what the scan shows as they said that RAI only kills the cells, not the masses. CindyLL