Management Approach to Thyroid Cancer in Albania

Abstract

Thyroid cancer is a cancer that starts in the thyroid gland. In Albania, thyroid cancer is rare disease, according to available data, which are not solid and up to date data, referred to 2014 to a paper named “Actualities in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Thyroid Cancer in Albania” by D. Gjergji et al., data from Clinic of General Surgery, UHC “Mother Theresa” in Tirana and the Registry of the Department of Pathology during the period 2004 – 2011, there were suspected 262 patients with thyroid tumors and only 42 of them or 16 % were diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Treatment depends on the type of thyroid cancer. Surgery is most often done, the entire thyroid gland is usually removed and if is suspected that cancer has spread to lymph nodes in the neck, these will also be removed. Radiation therapy may be done with or without surgery and it may be performed by; aiming external beam x-ray radiation at the thyroid or taking radioactive iodine by mouth. If the cancer does not respond to surgery or radiation, and has spread to other parts of the body, chemotherapy and targeted therapy are applied. The importance of screening, early diagnosis and there proper treatment possess still challenges in Albania, so better national health  programs must be developed in order to offer a better health care service to this medical problem.

Keywords: Thyroid cancer, risk factors, diagnosis, treatment