Thyroid Cancer Diagnosis

How is thyroid cancer diagnosed?

Your doctor may suspect thyroid cancer if you are experiencing symptoms and a physical exam suggests that you have swollen lymph nodes in your neck or a lump on your thyroid gland.

To learn whether your symptoms are caused by cancer, you may undergo one of more of the following tests:

  • Biopsy or fine-needle aspiration (FNA). This type of biopsy uses a very thin needle inserted into the suspicious area to draw cells into a syringe. (You may or may not need a numbing medication before the FNA.) A pathologist examines those cells to determine if cancer is present. 
  • Imaging scans. Different types of imaging may also be helpful to provide additional information that will be important for a diagnosis. These could include:

- X-ray

- Ultrasound

- Computed tomography (CT) scan

- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

- Positron emission tomography (PET) scan

- Radioiodine scan

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