My wife was recently diagnosed with hashimotos, hypothyroidism, and then .... papillary thyroid cancer. We traveled to Johns Hopkins and had an excellent experience. Her thyroid was removed and the surgeon said if he left anything behind it was "maybe a few cells". There was no evidence of lymph node involvement (several were biopsied beforehand and a few enlarged nodes were removed and tested) perimeter of the thyroid was healthy. She had two cancerous nodules, both about 1.5 cm in size and both on the left side of her thyroid. Our endocrinologist said that he is on the fence (leaning towards) whether or not the RAI treatment is necessary. She is 40 years old, which is good, the nodules were under 2 cm, which is good, but it is multifocal - 2 nodules. He said if she had 3 nodules, it would be a no-brainer, and if she only had only 1 nodule, he would advise against RAI. He said some endocrinologist would probably strongly reccomend it, and others would strongly advise against it. As I said, he could go either way. My wife and I are trying to make the decision. Our reservation of doing the RAI treatment is the increased risk of salivary gland, breast and GI cancer. Any feedback (personal experience, knowledge of statsistics on prognosis with vs. without treatment etc ....) would be helpful. Thanks.
David