Thyroid problem

[Calintay]

Has anyone had a thyroid problem after cancer treatments or has anyone had their cancer spread to their thyroid? If so what are the symptoms? Any advise is much helpful.

Thanks,

Heidi

As always my thoughts and prayers are with everyone of us battling this disease.

[Kasey]

Heidi!!!!!

Great to 'see' you! I am now on thyroid med for the past 9 months. Never had a problem before. Symptoms were pretty minimal, but my doc had the thyroid checked and decided my numbers were a 'little' high. My hair always was dry, but it was brittle and breaking off and seemed to be really coming out. Also my skin, nails, everything was very dry. I also seemed to have gained weight with no obvious reason.

Since the synthroid my hair and skin appears to be improved, but no luck with losing any pounds . Not sure if any of this is helpful. Hopefully all is still good out where you guys are. Tell mom I was asking for her......and happy holidays to everyone.

Love,

Kasey

[Snowflake]

Eighteen months after radiation, ka-powie, the thyroid took a vacation. In six months, I gained 50 pounds (and have continued to edge up). My hair was falling out, I was tired all the time, dry skin, lack of concentration...

Taking synthroid now, some things are better, but still gaining... Unfortunately.

It appears Kasey and I are in the same leaky canoe!

[chloesmom]

I also was diagnosed with a slightly underactive thyroid after I finished treatment. My skin, nails, and hair were all drier than they had been, I was tired all the time, and my joints ached terribly when I woke up in the morning.

I went on a low does of levothyroxin (generic for synthroid) and things really straigntened up. I watched my calories and lost weight and my aches and pains have subsided and my skin hair and nails aren't as bad.

It did all occur after treatment, but this is also very common for women in their 40's and 50's so who knows why it's happening.

Cindy

[Wendy]

Hi Heidi,

I have actually been watched over the past 6 months for possible lc in my thyroid. My pet scans have reflected steady increased suv numbers and increase in size.

So, yes you can get lc there - BUT it is super rare. After doing some research I found that most thyroid nodules are benign and are quite common.

Wendy

[Andrea]

My mom was on a thyroid medicine for awhile, b ut it was nothing serious, just a pill. It happpened after treatment. No symptoms, just blood work.

[betty boop]

I too have been battling the thyroid issue. I am on 88 mg of synthroid a day. Seems to be helping now though. I was unusually tired, lost weight and just couldn't function too well. I thought the cancer was back full force, but my gen. practictioner said he wanted to test the thryoid and it was the problem. It took about 1 month of the synthroid for me to feel better. Just recently it took a dip again and I started feeling more tired so they upped the mg.

Thank goodness for baby oil. It seems to help with the dry skin and I have to condition my hair daily. It was falling out but it has quit doing that. Didn't lose too much though.

[DrWest]

I just found that a patient developed rather signficant hypothyroidism (low thyroid activity) after a few weeks on Sutent (clinical trial for never-smokers and patients with BAC). Interestingly, on the schedule of 4 weeks on and then 2 weeks off therapy, her symptoms and thyroid function normalized during the "off" period, just before she saw me and an endocrinologist in follow-up. I suspect her thyroid will shut down again back on sutent (she's on a low dose of thyroid replacement now, and we expect it will be a moving target). I also suspect that if we checked thyroid function more in patients we'd find that hypothyroidism, likely from our treatments, is more common than we recognize. But we haven't generally looked for changes in thyroid function, so we really don't know how common that really is.

-Dr. West

[june_2007]

After 33 Tadiation treatments and 36 Chemo treatments, a CT scan showed enlarged thiroid gland on the right side. It effects my swallowing and coughing at times. My Oncologist has not ordered testing other tha I was sent to have it biopsied. Biop came back clean.

I have gained up to 163 pounds. At the time my cancer went into remission, I wrightd 89 pounds. Within 6 months I have gained the 74 pounds. My hair has always been dry and brittle, but has not fallen out. My skin is very dry and flakes off and itches.

I am on no treatment.

[Snowflake]

June,

Talk to your primary care doctor regarding your thyroid issue. You should be referred to an endocrinologist for more in-depth testing, but a primary care doctor can do the first step in bloodwork. Eighty pounds (and I TOTALLY feel that pain) is a lot in either directions. You need to get the gain under control before you can even think about losing...

Good luck!