Thyroid cancer is a rare condition with only approximately 1,000 new cases per year in the United Kingdom. It takes many different forms, but the commonest forms have a very good prognosis with a 90 to 95% cure rate.

Thyroid cancer presents as a painless lump in the thyroid and occasionally with other lumps in the neck. It can rarely affect the voice giving a croaky hoarse voice. The diagnosis is by an ultrasound scan and a fine needle aspiration biopsy (see lump in thyroid). The treatment of thyroid cancer depends on many factors, these include the size of the tumour, the sub type of the tumour, but generally requires an operation to remove the whole of the thyroid gland and any affected lymph nodes in the neck. Radioactive iodine may also be required to make sure there are no surviving cancer cells. Following successful treatment most thyroid cancers have a very good survival rate.