Do I need to take medicine if I have half of my thyroid cancer removed?

Thyroid cancer is a common thyroid malignancy. If a thyroid cancer hemisection does not require medication, it may be because the patient is older or the tumor is larger, or there may be distant metastasis, such as lung metastasis, liver metastasis, etc. It is usually impossible to achieve a cure through surgery alone, so medication is recommended. If metastasis occurs again after surgery and the patient also meets the surgical indications, medication can be omitted and observation and waiting treatment can be adopted.

1. Older age: If the patient is older, such as 80-90 years old, and has no obvious underlying diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, etc., hemisection of the thyroid cancer does not require medication or treatment and observation. If there are other clinical symptoms of thyroid cancer, such as neck mass, hoarseness, dysphagia, etc., surgery is also required in a timely manner;

2. The tumor is relatively large: If the tumor is relatively large and compresses the trachea and esophagus, and the patient has symptoms such as difficulty breathing, timely surgery is also required;

3. Distant metastasis: If the patient's tumor metastasizes to the lungs, liver, and other organs, surgery is also required in a timely manner. If you do not take medication, the condition may worsen, affecting the patient's quality of life, and in severe cases, it may be life-threatening. Therefore, in this case, you also need to take medication in a timely manner, and you can use targeted drugs such as sorafenib tosylate tablets for treatment according to the doctor's advice;

4. Not meeting surgical indications: If the patient does not meet surgical indications, for example, the patient has no contraindications to surgery, although the tumor is large, but there is no distant metastasis, then the patient does not need to take medication for treatment.

Therefore, the situation of not taking medicine after hemisection of thyroid cancer needs to be analyzed on a case-by-case basis. For patients with larger tumors, routine thyroid hormone suppression therapy is required after surgery. For older patients, if they have underlying diseases such as hypertension, they also need to take corresponding antihypertensive drugs for treatment.