How long is the life expectancy of a patient with thyroid cancer

Thyroid cancer is a common thyroid malignancy. Its prognosis depends on many factors, such as pathological type, tumor size, and treatment effect. Generally speaking, if not treated actively, the survival time of thyroid cancer patients is short, perhaps only a few months. If treated actively and effectively, the survival time of most thyroid cancer patients can be extended accordingly.

1. Papillary carcinoma: Papillary carcinoma grows slowly and has a low degree of malignancy. In most cases, if it is discovered early and treated actively and effectively, it will not affect normal life expectancy.

2. Follicular carcinoma: Follicular carcinoma has a high incidence of distant metastasis, and the incidence of contralateral cervical lymph node metastasis is also relatively high. Lymph node metastasis may occur in the early stage. If surgical treatment or total thyroidectomy can be performed in time, it can effectively prevent the tumor from continuing to develop and prolong the patient's survival time, and the patient may even survive for several years.

3. Medullary carcinoma: Distant metastasis of medullary carcinoma is rare, and its malignancy is between papillary carcinoma and follicular carcinoma. Early radical surgical treatment can lead to long-term survival, with a five-year survival rate of up to 90%.

4. Undifferentiated cancer: Undifferentiated cancer is highly malignant and has a poor prognosis. In most cases, patients can only survive for 1-2 years, and a few patients may survive for 3-6 months.

In addition, the postoperative survival time of thyroid cancer patients is also related to many factors such as disease stage, treatment sensitivity, age, etc. Therefore, patients must be detected, diagnosed and treated early, and adhere to lifelong follow-up and reexamination.