Could/would someone please tell me what this actually means:
Comment: The differential diagnosis includes hyperplastic nodule in benign nodular goiter and follicular neoplasm. I ge the benign nodular goiter but the rest is confusing to me
DIAGNOSIS:
LEFT THYROID NODULE FINE NEEDLE ASPIRATION CYTOLOGY
Cellular follicular lesion; see comment. to me, no biggie, right?
Isn't follicular neoplasm cancer cells? Might be why they removed it.. maybe someone can chime in.
To me, it would be sooo nice if report said - "cancer cells" somewhere!!?!
I asked my dd and she said she took it as possibly having cancer characteristics. WHAT??!! That is what her PCP told her.
No one would say Yep, they're there. Cancer cells. We gotta remove it.
Then I was wondering, why just half, if the other half had cancer?
Need to keep researching. Thanks so much.
Last edited by starryGal09; 08-15-2009 at 10:17 AM.
If it were follicular cells in the fna, the only way to know if it's cancer is to remove the entire nodule (and usually the lobe) and see if the cells are encapsulated or not. If encapsulated, then it's benign, if not, it's cancer, and then they would remove the rest of the thyroid, usually at a later time.
What was her final pathology after removal?????---that's all that matters, the fna doesn't matter once you have a real final pathology of the actual nodule. They usually just remove one lobe, if they aren't sure, because it is less likely to cause damage (ie, vocal chords), and you can often live without meds on one lobe.
In my case, I had a positive fna for pappillary cancer, so my surgeon took out as much of the thyroid as safely possible. It is not great to have two surgeries if they only take one lobe at a time, but they don't want to take a healthy lobe if the first side was benign.
That is what her PCP told her. 
