Cancer Care Center Of Decatur

Thyroid cancer symptoms

Not all thyroid cancers produce symptoms. When symptoms do occur they may consist of:

lumps or nodules in front of the neck (single or multiple)
enlarged lymph nodes in the neck
problems with swallowing
hoarseness or voice changes
pain or discomfort in the neck
chronic cough

What are the causes of thyroid cancer?What is cancer? - cancer is a class of diseases characterized by out-of-control cell growth. Cancer harms the body when damaged cells divide uncontrollably to form lumps or masses of tissue called tumors (except in the case of leukemia where cancer prohibits normal blood function by abnormal cell division in the blood stream). Tumors can grow and interfere with the digestive, nervous, and circulatory systems, and they can release hormones that alter body function. Tumors that stay in one spot and demonstrate limited growth are generally considered to be benign.

More dangerous, or malignant, tumors form when two things occur:
a cancerous cell manages to move throughout the body using the blood or lymph systems, destroying healthy tissue in a process called invasion
that cell manages to divide and grow, making new blood vessels to feed itself in a process called angiogenesis.