In a concise interview, McCall McPherson asks Dr. Roy about thyroid cancer risk factors and detection. Dr. Roy explains that thyroid cancer is three times more common in women, with peak incidence between the ages of 30 and 50. The disease is often asymptomatic and does not appear in routine blood work, so most cases are discovered either during a physical exam (or by the patient feeling a lump) or incidentally on imaging performed for unrelated reasons. To improve early detection, Dr. Roy advocates two proactive measures: (1) a monthly self‑neck check, similar to a self‑breast exam, to become familiar with one’s thyroid and lymph nodes; and (2) a screening thyroid ultrasound at around age 30, with follow‑up scans every few years if the initial scan is clear. He emphasizes that early detection leads to early cure, mirroring strategies used for other cancers.
About thyroid cancer, are there certain people who are more at risk for it than others?
Absolutely. So it's 3 times more likely in women than men, which is shocking. And the women that get it, the peak rise are 30s to 50s years old. So you're in the prime of your life, you have kids, you have your job, everything's going great, and then all of a sudden, bam, you're diagnosed with thyroid cancer. And it's becoming more and more common.
It's a true disparity in the actual incidence of it. How do people generally find out?
What's the best way So, I think this is the most important question because the fact is that thyroid cancer usually, for the most part, has no symptoms. So it's a silent cancer and it doesn't show up in blood work. So what I hear all the time when patients come in to see me, they say, Dr. Roy, how is it possible that I have thyroid cancer when my thyroid numbers are checked every year and they're normal and I don't feel anything? And I say, I know, it's a crazy thing to think about, but patients usually find their thyroid cancer either when they're having symptoms, so they're having Either by a physician, an OB-GYN, a primary care doctor, or even themselves. Maybe they're rubbing lotion on their neck or their doctor's actually doing a physical exam and feel a lump. So that's a common way to find it. And then the other common way is when they get a scan for another reason, carotid arteries ultrasound or a CT scan for something else, and it's an incidental finding. So that's the most common way that it's found. I, the push that I've been doing over the past several years is being an advocate for yourself and doing things for yourself to try to find it. And so what I mean by that is, number one, I think that every woman should do self-neck checks. You hear self-breast exams, but you never hear about self-neck checks. So I'm actually promoting— it's called— it's a neck check challenge. So it basically— if you go on my videos or my YouTube channel, I show you how to do a neck check. And basically what you do is you just feel around where your thyroid is, and then you carry that circular motion towards the side of your neck, feel your thyroid, feel your lymph nodes. And you just want to get to know your body, right? Just like when you do self-breast exams, what's your normal breast feels like, so that if you do that every month, if something pops up, you're like, oh, that doesn't feel right. And the second thing is that I think every woman, and I have data to support this, is that at 30 years old should get a screening thyroid ultrasound. It's not invasive. It's not invasive. It takes 2 minutes. And then, and if you have nothing, then okay, you don't have to do it every year like a mammogram, but then maybe 5 years later, get another one because early detection is early cure, just like every other cancer.
