21-year-old girl discovers thyroid cancer from signs that many people ignore

A 21-year-old female student named Li (Taiwan, China) accidentally noticed that her neck was getting bigger when she looked in the mirror. At first, she thought she had gained weight so she started dieting. After 3 weeks, she lost about 2kg, her arms, legs and waist were noticeably smaller but her neck was bigger than before.

At this time, she began to feel uncomfortable in her throat and tired. Thinking that she had a cold and was dieting too much, she bought medicine and supplemented her body with food but it did not help, so she went to MinSing General Hospital (Taiwan, China) for examination.

After examination and testing, the doctor diagnosed her with stage 2 papillary thyroid cancer and the condition required surgery as soon as possible.

For the young girl, this was a big shock. She did not expect that she had cancer with such vague signs.

Cô gái 21 tuổi phát hiện ung thư tuyến giáp từ dấu hiệu rất nhiều người bỏ qua - Ảnh 2. — Illustration

What is papillary thyroid cancer?

Papillary thyroid tumors are called papillary thyroid carcinoma. Although they account for the majority of thyroid cancer cases, fortunately the prognosis is relatively good.

The disease usually appears as cysts, nodules or masses of the thyroid gland but does not cause dysfunction of the gland. A common feature of the disease is the ability to metastasize to the cervical lymph nodes, which often occur on the same side as the tumor. They can metastasize to other organs but rarely enter the bloodstream.

Causes of papillary thyroid cancer

Although scientists have not yet discovered the main cause of the disease, research results have shown a number of related factors, such as:

Cô gái 21 tuổi phát hiện ung thư tuyến giáp từ dấu hiệu rất nhiều người bỏ qua - Ảnh 3. — Illustration

Due to radiation

People with a history of radiation exposure are at higher risk, such as those who received low-level radiation therapy to the head or neck as a child to treat another disease or those who live in a radioactive environment.

Due to genetics

Several genetic disorders have been linked to the disease, such as Gardner's syndrome, Werner's syndrome, adenomatous polyposis, etc.

Due to nutrition

In addition, some other factors can also affect the possibility of getting the disease, such as: lack of iodine in the diet, having benign diseases related to the thyroid gland, using birth control pills, giving birth late or having late menopause,...