The sampling, the ultrasound of the neck, the interview with the doctors. The thirty-one-year-old basketball player, model and TV presenter Valentina Vignali wanted to tell the routine of checks following the removal of a thyroid tumor diagnosed ten years ago in a post on Instagram.
“There is a constant in these 10 years of illness that does not abandon me, it is always the same question that they ask me: ‘Aren’t you afraid?” No. I’m not afraid of something I can’t control. Cancer does as it pleases, it decides, can I be afraid of something that relies completely on chance? What I’ve always tried to do is have the utmost respect for my body and of my life, with nutrition, sport and all the good things I can do for the rest, it will be the case that decides how things should go”.
The operation and therapies
Thyroid cancer was diagnosed 10 years ago. The sportswoman says she had to undergo an emergency surgery to remove the thyroid which was followed by cycles of radiotherapy due to the presence of metastases in the lymph nodes. The video shows the two main controls for those who have had this type of cancer: the neck control ultrasound and blood tests to identify the possible presence and values of tumor markers.
Thyroid cancer, easier diagnosis with “combined” artificial intelligence
by Mara Magistroni
Thyroid cancer
In the case of cancer, the protocol provides for the surgical removal (in some cases even only partial, but usually total) of the thyroid. “Papillary carcinoma has a very good prognosis, 5 years after surgery, survival is very high and relapses very low. However, if the thyroid is large and the tumor involves the thyroid capsule and affects the lymph nodes in the neck, or has an aggressive character, the operation is more articulated: the lymph nodes of the neck are also removed and a specific, radiometabolic therapy must be followed”, Professor Luke Revelliendocrine surgeon at the Catholic University-Fondazione Policlinico Gemelli University in Rome.
What is radiometabolic therapy
“It has nothing to do with chemotherapy or radiotherapy – continues Revelli -. It is a specific completion therapy for the thyroid and consists in administering an adequate dose of radioactive iodine 131 which is localized in any remaining thyroid cells in the neck and it burns: it is also called sideration. At this point the vast majority of patients are considered cured”.
Lung and thyroid cancers, specific treatment available for those with alteration of the Ret gene
by Irma D’Aria
The controls
Immediately after the operation and any radiometabolic therapy, patients see each other two-three times to check the scar and dose the levothyroxine (the replacement drug, ndr). Periodically, with a frequency that can be six-monthly or yearly depending on the case, both the values of thyroid hormones are monitored (to check the right dosage even in the long term) and those of antibodies and thyroglobulin, the increase of which is an early indication of recurrence of the disease.