Types of Thyroid Cancer
Anaplastic tumors are the least common (only 1% of all thyroid cancer cases) and most deadly of all thyroid cancers. This cancer has a very low cure rate with the very best treatments. Most patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer do not live 1 year from the day they are diagnosed.
Follicular thyroid cancer, which is a type of neoplasm involving the thyroid gland, resembles the normal thyroid in microscopic pattern.It originates from the follicular cells. It is otherwise known as follicular adenocarcinoma or follicular cancer. It is the second common type of neoplasm in the thyroid gland.
Medullary Thyroid Cancer (MTC) accounts for 1%– 2% of thyroid cancers in the United States. MTC is different from other types of thyroid cancers (which are derived from thyroid follicular cells – the cells that make thyroid hormone), because it originates from the parafollicular C cells (also called “C cells”) of the thyroid gland.
Papillary thyroid cancer (also sometimes called papillary thyroid carcinoma) is the most common type of thyroid cancer. You may have even heard your doctor talk about metastatic papillary thyroid cancer ("metastatic" means that it has spread beyond your thyroid gland).
Lymphoma usually occurs within lymph nodes, but in rare cases, it arises from lymphocytes that are present within the thyroid gland. This is called primary thyroid lymphoma, to distinguish it from lymphomatous involvement of the thyroid gland due to metastasis or direct extension.