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