Thyroid cancer symptoms

• A quick guide to what's on this page
• Common symptoms of thyroid cancer
• Unusual symptoms

The symptoms of thyroid cancer can include

• A lump at the base of your neck
• A hoarse voice that does not get better
• Sore throat or difficulty swallowing that does not get better
• A lump elsewhere in your neck

Thyroid lumps are very common. It is not unusual for older people to have small lumps in their thyroid glands called nodules. As many as 9 out of 10 women over 70 will have these. Only about 1 in 20 thyroid lumps are cancer. An enlarged thyroid gland that is not cancer is sometimes called a goitre.

Cancerous thyroid lumps are not usually painful. But a painful lump still needs to be checked out by your doctor. You should also see your doctor if a lump that has been previously checked out suddenly gets bigger. All these symptoms are more likely to be caused by other illnesses. A hoarse voice or sore throat is more likely to be caused by a bacterial or viral infection. But if the hoarseness or soreness stays for more than 3 weeks, you should ask your doctor about it.

If you had radiotherapy to your neck area as a child (for example, for Hodgkin’s disease) you should always have any lumps in your neck area checked by a doctor. If you had childhood radiotherapy, there is a 1 in 3 risk of any thyroid lump being cancerous.

Sometimes, with medullary thyroid cancer, you may have unusual symptoms such as

• Frequent loose bowel movements
• Becoming red in the face (flushed)

This is caused by a hormone called calcitonin. It is made by the medullary thyroid cancer cells. So, although it is a perfectly normal substance to find in the bloodstream, you may have too much of it and that is what causes these symptoms.