Please pray for my Mom.

Everyone,

I would like to ask for your thoughts and prayers. My mom was diagnosed last Friday with thyroid cancer. At this stage, we do not know what type of thyroid cancer it is and to what extent it has invaded the thyroid, the surrounding lymph nodes, and if any metastasis has occurred.

She had been complaining of constrictions in her neck, swelling, and fatigue, and decided to have a check-up. Biopsies of her thyroid revealed malignant cells.

She will be undergoing total thyroidectomy on Aug. 26, 2008, and radioactive iodine may need to be administered as adjuvant therapy.

There are two categories of thyroid cancer according to clinical magnitude. The first set are the differentiated thyroid carcinomas, which consist of papillary and follicular thyroid carcinoma. Papillary is the most common, followed by follicular, and the two are highly curable, with a 20-yr disease-free survival rate of 97%. The second set are the undifferentiated thyroid carcinomas, consisting of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma which may consist of giant cell or small cell cancer. These are rare but present a very aggressive form of disease. It has high recurrence rates and high incidence of metastasis to the brain and lungs. Classification is based on the histopathology of the tumor. Risk factors for thyroid cancer include history of goiter (which my Mom had), family history of goiter and/or thyroid cancer, female sex, and Asian race.

Histopathological examination of the biopsy samples from my Mom were ambiguous (the pathologist said it might be papillary or anaplastic), but we are praying that it's papillary, which is more curable.

I am awaiting the path reports that my Dad has promised to send me so I could find out more about the diagnosis.

Thank you so much.