This is a candid interview with Dr. Gary Clayman about thyroid cancer surgery and making sure a patient receives the best available care.
Dr. Clayman has performed more than four hundred thyroid cancer operations per year for over twenty years among patients ranging from 6 months to 100+ years of age. Nearly half of Dr. Clayman’s patients have undergone failed initial surgery for their thyroid cancer by another surgeon or have recurrent, persistent, or aggressive thyroid cancer. If it pertains to thyroid surgery or thyroid cancer, there is likely nothing that he hasn’t seen.
Dr. Clayman left the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in the fall of 2016 to form the Clayman Thyroid Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida
If someone is considering surgery, Dr. Clayman discusses important topics, including:
Other Doctor Thyroid episodes referenced during this interview:
The Parathyroid, and a Safer — Less-Scarring Thyroid Surgery with Dr. Babak Larian from Cedars-Sinai
SHOW NOTES:
Book: Atlas of Head and Neck Surgery
University of Chicago Medicine researchers Briseis Aschebrook-Kilfoy, PhD, assistant research professor in epidemiology, and Raymon Grogan, MD, assistant professor of surgery lead the North American Thyroid Cancer Survivorship Study (NATCSS).
For their most recent research, Aschebrook-Kilfoy and Grogan recruited 1,174 thyroid cancer survivors – 89.9 percent female with an average age of 48
After treatment, thyroid cancer survivors face a lifetime of cancer surveillance and an anxiety-inducing high rate of recurrence, which could contribute to their findings.
"The goal of this study is to turn it into a long-term, longitudinal cohort," said Grogan, who hopes to develop a tool that physicians can use to assess the psychological wellbeing of thyroid cancer survivors. "But, there was no way to do that with thyroid cancer because no one had ever studied quality of life or psychology of thyroid cancer before.”
In this episode, we will explore:
The spiritual, social, psychological, and physical impacts of thyroid cancer. Some of the sometimes over-looked physical impacts include dry mouth, voice problems, dry eyes, dental problems, fatigue, dry skin, and hypoglycemia.
What happens to vocal cords after surgery? Even when not paralyzed, quality of voice is effected.
Often times, family members don't take treatment seriously. Society, healthcare professionals, and the media have minimized thyroid cancer, and in return has made patients feel minimized.
Anxiety about reoccurrence, RAI treatment, and self-concept, influence quality of life for thyroid cancer patients.
A 2011 study by Aschebrook-Kilfoy and Grogan found that thyroid cancer, which is most common in women, will double in incidence by 2019.