The first biopsy on Julia McGuire’s thyroid came back
negative, so the college student was regularly monitored for two years until, at one visit,
the slight lump had swelled to the size of a walnut. Concerned about its recent surge in
growth, her endocrinologist recommended removal, describing the surgery primarily as a
precaution, although cancer was a possibility.
The 20-year-old wasn’t particularly worried until
her phone rang one day with the biopsy results: stage 1 papillary thyroid cancer, the
most common form of the disease.
"I think it was the most traumatic moment of my life,"
says McGuire, now age 27. She underwent a second surgery to remove the remainder of her
thyroid - a butterfly-shaped gland in the neck that regulates metabolism - and followed up
with radioactive iodine to kill any lingering cancer cells. In the past seven years,
she has largely moved on, with annual checkups as the only cancer reminder.
The treatment path for Rabbi Len Troupp unfolded
much differently. In 1999, Troupp learned he had medullary thyroid cancer, a potentially
more aggressive type, comprising fewer than 5 percent of all thyroid malignancies.
Since then, Troupp has combated the cancer on several fronts, starting with the
removal of his thyroid and lymph nodes in his neck and chest, followed by experimental
drugs after the cancer spread to his liver and a lung, among other areas.
Nine years later, the 62-year-old appears to be benefiting from XL184,
one in a cadre of investigational drug treatments for aggressive or difficult-to-treat
thyroid malignancies.
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