Thyroid cancer during pregnancy: Megan’s story

"Roswell Park saved my life. They saved the life of my baby," says Megan Woodward, reflecting on her experience being treated for aggressive thyroid cancer while pregnant with her second child. "I get to continue to parent my two young children and show up for my family every day."

Today, Meg is getting ready to be the puck-dropper at Hockey Fights Cancer with the Buffalo Sabres on November 1. No doubt her newest daughter, Chloe Rose, now 13 months old, will be in the arena to cheer mom on — or watching from home in Clarence, NY, with her three-year-old big sister and dad.

"We loved the name' Rose' as a kind of nod to Roswell and a little reflection of how important the team was to her birth," Meg says of naming her "miracle" daughter. "She is just really doing so well."

Trimester by trimester: scary days of waiting

In early 2024, when Megan and her husband Tom Ternquist were trying for their second baby, her primary care physician recommended she have a thyroid ultrasound because she has been monitoring a thyroid condition since childhood. She was not yet pregnant when she had what she believed would be a routine thyroid scan, her first since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. By the time the test results came back showing a new growth on her thyroid that warranted further examination, she was in her first trimester of pregnancy.

As a behavioral health clinician who is currently an administrator for a Medicaid-managed company, Megan knew that thyroid issues are usually not cancer – and even if it is, it is usually slow growing. Out of an abundance of concern for the new life she now carried, she and her physician decided to wait until she was in her second trimester to have a biopsy. "All the science says you can take your time," she says.

At five months pregnant, she scheduled a fine needle aspiration. "That came back as conclusively a carcinoma, but it didn't tell me what kind, so my doctor quickly referred me to Roswell Park." At Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, her first appointment with the surgical team was quickly followed by a second biopsy. "I opened my patient portal when the results of that biopsy were back and it was completely life-changing," Meg recalls. "I had an exceedingly rare and aggressive form of thyroid carcinoma called anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. She read the pathology report on Wednesday before Memorial Day, and on Thursday her care team, led by head and neck surgeon Vishal Gupta, MD, asked her to come in right away for a CT and MRI to determine if the cancer had spread.

"They moved mountains and got me scheduled for surgery to get my thyroid removed the very next day, which was the day before the Memorial Day weekend. They really centered very quickly on the goal of keeping me alive and keeping me and my baby safe. I don't know if it would have been an obvious focus if I had been anywhere else." Meg says.

"They were confident. They knew who to bring to the table. They acted with such urgency to do what needed to be done to save my life and to save the life of my child."

Led by Vishal Gupta, MD, FACS, and supported by a multidisciplinary collaboration of Roswell Park experts in endocrinology, gynecology and radiation, the five-hour surgery removed Megan's total thyroid and about 55 lymph nodes on the right side of her neck, as well as some muscle and other structures. She stayed at Roswell Park for two nights before returning home to her two-year-old in time for dinner.

"I feel so grateful that Roswell Park was in my backyard and able to meet my needs, especially when places like the top cancer centers in New York City were unable to treat me when I was pregnant," she says. "I credit the team at Roswell for their thoroughness and for their willingness to partner across disciplines to provide such specialty care.

After the surgery, a plan for safe delivery

The treatment for anaplastic thyroid carcinoma is surgery first, followed closely by radiation and chemotherapy. But because of her pregnancy, Megan's care team needed to come up with a different strategy.

"What we landed on was that as long as I agreed to weekly ultrasounds with very close monitoring, we could postpone radiation until I reached full term," she explains. Every single week from week 23 to week 37, I got an ultrasound of my neck. Every week it came back showing no evidence of returning cancer or growth. Every week that I got that report, I continued to carry my baby, and I got to carry her to full term. The plan was to induce full-term delivery. Then, four weeks after that, the Roswell team had me back in to prepare me for chemoradiation."

For six weeks, Megan received chemotherapy and radiation on Mondays and radiation on Tuesdays through Fridays. "I was down at Roswell every single day, and Monday was a 12-hour day," she says, lauding the large family she defines as "an enormous village" for their extraordinary support.

"My mom and sister were spending nights to help with the baby so my husband could still function at work, and I could get rest. They were really an army of helpers that was relentlessly consistent and steady for six months."

Dropping the puck for health advocacy

Megan is excited she was chosen by Roswell Park to be the all-important "puck-dropper" for the Sabres on November 1. As a native Western New Yorker, hockey is part of her regional DNA, so she is always rooting for the Sabres.

Ultimately, she sees the opportunity as a chance to amplify the need to be proactive about your health, and wants people not to be limited or overcome by their fear or worry of uncertainty about the unknown: "We are incredibly fortunate and blessed to live in a region with access to world-renowned medicine that is coming out of Roswell Park every single day so if it is the worst case there will be a plan, and that plan will be crucial to keeping you living and going and soaking in all those moments of unclaimed love for as long as possible."

She is forever thankful to Dr. Gupta and all the members of her care team – the oncologists, radiation specialists and "army of professionals who have dedicated their lives to serving people with cancer and promoting cancer survivorship."

"The comprehensive, coordinated care package really makes Roswell an incredibly special place," she says. "I will be forever grateful to everyone involved in my care."