Thyroid cancer
in Health ·
Hello everyone,
In mid-May of this year, I was diagnosed with poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma (PDTC). It’s a relatively newly defined entity that sits clinically and pathologically somewhere between well-differentiated thyroid cancers (papillary and follicular) and anaplastic carcinoma. To put that in perspective, papillary and follicular types have excellent prognoses with five-year survival rates exceeding 95%, whereas anaplastic carcinoma has a survival rate of about 20% within a year—meaning at diagnosis, the life expectancy is often estimated at just 6 months to 2 years. Because these prognoses are so drastically different, and because there is so little information available online regarding this specific type, I’ve entered a bit of a crisis period... I simply have no foundation upon which to build an understanding of my own illness.
I am 24 years old, living in Washington, D.C., and receiving treatment at Vineyard. The doctors there mentioned they encounter this specific diagnosis "once in a blue moon," and honestly, the fact that they lack experience with it feels worse than the diagnosis itself. I have no one who can tell me firsthand what the most likely progression looks like or how to approach treatment optimally.
I am starting this thread in hopes that someone here has faced a similar diagnosis. Since this entity is difficult to identify, a pathologist might initially label it as advanced papillary or follicular cancer, or even anaplastic, only for the prognosis and treatment response to deviate from those expectations. If you believe you have or had a thyroid cancer that falls into any category other than classic papillary, follicular, or medullary, please reach out via a comment or a private message.
Thank you,
Diana
In mid-May of this year, I was diagnosed with poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma (PDTC). It’s a relatively newly defined entity that sits clinically and pathologically somewhere between well-differentiated thyroid cancers (papillary and follicular) and anaplastic carcinoma. To put that in perspective, papillary and follicular types have excellent prognoses with five-year survival rates exceeding 95%, whereas anaplastic carcinoma has a survival rate of about 20% within a year—meaning at diagnosis, the life expectancy is often estimated at just 6 months to 2 years. Because these prognoses are so drastically different, and because there is so little information available online regarding this specific type, I’ve entered a bit of a crisis period... I simply have no foundation upon which to build an understanding of my own illness.
I am 24 years old, living in Washington, D.C., and receiving treatment at Vineyard. The doctors there mentioned they encounter this specific diagnosis "once in a blue moon," and honestly, the fact that they lack experience with it feels worse than the diagnosis itself. I have no one who can tell me firsthand what the most likely progression looks like or how to approach treatment optimally.
I am starting this thread in hopes that someone here has faced a similar diagnosis. Since this entity is difficult to identify, a pathologist might initially label it as advanced papillary or follicular cancer, or even anaplastic, only for the prognosis and treatment response to deviate from those expectations. If you believe you have or had a thyroid cancer that falls into any category other than classic papillary, follicular, or medullary, please reach out via a comment or a private message.
Thank you,
Diana