Is the Cancer Gone?

Last week and this week, I’ve been undergoing testing to see if the second RAI treatment in June killed what was left of the thyroid tissue. Apparently, it hasn’t killed it all. My blood test results show I still have a stimulated Tg (thyroglobulin) of 16.7 (indicating remaining thyroid tissue), although it’s down from 22 in June before the treatment, and my ultrasound and whole-body scan results are still pending. I meet with my endocrinologist next Tuesday to discuss the results and where to go from here.

This is absolutely a lesson in patience and a lesson in learning to live with shades of gray instead of neat-and-tidy, clear-as-day black-and-white.

I know from all my reading that there is a significant group of us thyroid cancer patients who never achieve an undetectable thyroglobulin despite being unable to locate a source of the Tg. In fact, the American Thyroid Association’s most current guidelines say that “only about 5% of all PTC [papillary thyroid cancer] patients die of their disease, yet 15-20% of low-risk PTC patients are likely to have persistent disease based on persistent measurable Tg with stimulation testing.”