10% to 20% of common thyroid cancer is no longer classified as cancer

joeprivate

A story I just read about ,"Common thyroid cancer is no longer cancer".
This has to be good news for many people who will now avoid feeding the cancer industry at great personal cost.
It is has been estimated that 10% to 20% of people who people that have been diagnosed and treated for thyroid cancer were in fact incorrectly diagnosed and treated for a condition that should not be classed as a cancer.
When will these patients be contacted and given an update explaining how this medical mistake happened ?
It is already too late for some patients who took the advice of their doctors and consultants who went on a hunch and decided to treat this thyroid condition with the aggressive treatment designed for cancer without properly looking at the data.
In future they will hopefully be no longer treated with radioiodine or other aggressive approaches.
I wonder how many people had their health destroyed and lives shortened from the side effects from medical treatments for thyroid cancer that was in fact never a cancer.
Many of these people were lightly to have had no symptoms and were screened at their annual health check-up and were so grateful to the doctors who caught and cured thyroid cancer early, while the reality was they never need treatment for cancer in the first place.
These patients may never fully recover and some may already be dead from the side effects of unnecessary operations and treatments ,will the doctors now contact all these patients and their family's who have been wrongly diagnosed and treated for cancer and at least let them know that they never had cancer in the first place.Even at this late stage people should be told that they were misdiagnosed with cancer and given a review of how this mistake happened and what they now need to do.
Not only does the reclassification eliminate the psychological impact of the diagnosis of 'cancer,' it reduces the likelihood of complications of total thyroid removal, and the overall cost of health care."

Here are the details and links to the story.

A group of 24 doctors from seven countries just reclassified a certain type of thyroid tumor as no longer cancerous, according to a report in JAMA Oncology.

That might not seem like that big of a big deal, but it is. The tumor—formerly called EFVPTC (encapsulated follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma) but now known as NIFTP (noninvasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features), with no C on the end to designate "carcinoma"—is estimated to make up between 10 and 20 percent of all thyroid cancer diagnoses in Northern America and Europe, according to a press release.

See links http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/04/15/common-thyroid-cancer-is-no-longer-cancer.html?intcmp=trending

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160414113419.htm


Bernie Sanders says medical mistakes are the 3rd cause of death in the US.Good job I live in Ireland that problem is much smaller in Ireland we put the patients on waiting lists.

Here is a video the talks about the common problem of been over diagnosed

The incidence of thyroid cancer has been rising partly due to early detection of tumors that are indolent or non-progressing, despite the presence of certain cellular abnormalities that are traditionally considered cancerous, explained senior investigator Yuri Nikiforov, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pathology and director of Pitt's Division of Molecular and Genomic Pathology.

"This phenomenon is known as overdiagnosis," Dr. Nikiforov said. "To my knowledge, this is the first time in the modern era a type of cancer is being reclassified as a non-cancer. I hope that it will set an example for other expert groups to address nomenclature of various cancer types that have indolent behavior to prevent inappropriate and costly treatment."

"If it’s not a cancer, let’s not call it a cancer," the president-elect of the American Thyroid Association tells the Times. Similar efforts to reclassify certain lung, prostate, and breast lesions to avoid over-diagnosing cancer are being called for

See more related info at this New York times article
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/06/opinion/an-epidemic-of-thyroid-cancer.html?_r=0

2Scoops

Unfortunately, an encapsulated follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma cannot be diagnosed before getting it removed. Needle biopsies cannot say it's encapsulated and the cytology will look like papillary thyroid carcinoma. In addition, it's already known to endocrinologists and surgeons that these have indolent behaviour. This is just a meaningless name change.

joeprivate

2Scoops wrote: »

Unfortunately, an encapsulated follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma cannot be diagnosed before getting it removed. Needle biopsies cannot say it's encapsulated and the cytology will look like papillary thyroid carcinoma. In addition, it's already known to endocrinologists and surgeons that these have indolent behaviour. This is just a meaningless name change.

I am sorry but I totally disagree with you that this is a meaningless name change.
This reclassification will eliminate the psychological damage to the patient of the diagnosis of 'cancer' it will also reduce the risk of complications of total thyroid removal and follow-up treatment for a cancer that never existed , however, it may also reduce the overall cost of the treatment and the profit margins enjoyed by the cancer industry which will upset some people.

As Bernie Sanders says medical mistakes are the 3rd cause of death in the US and I don't think it much different in Ireland , perhaps more people die from medical mistakes in Ireland than from breast cancer.
Treating people for cancer that they most lightly never had is not in the patient's best interest and the negative side effects of this unnecessary treatment are too long to mention but includes death.
But in many cases, such medical mistakes are not obvious to the patient or the deceased family who may be eternally grateful that the medical profession diagnosed and treated the patient for cancer and extended the patient's life while the reality was it was the side effect of treatment that killed the patient that was never lightly to die from the disease in the first place.

2Scoops

joeprivate wrote: »

I am sorry but I totally disagree with you that this is a meaningless name change.
This reclassification will eliminate the psychological damage to the patient of the diagnosis of 'cancer' it will also reduce the risk of complications of total thyroid removal and follow-up treatment for a cancer that never existed , however, it may also reduce the overall cost of the treatment and the profit margins enjoyed by the cancer industry which will upset some people.

Total thyroidectomy and follow-up treatment for cancer were already not indicated for this entity, regardless of name change. Agree will eliminate psychological damage to patient.