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Molecular testing for thyroid cancer - yet to be proven useful?

4/12/2016

2 Comments

 
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Having just returned from the Endocrine Society Conference in a snowy Boston, I came away still to be convinced that molecular testing for thyroid cancer has lived up to it's promise.

Molecular testing helps give additional information about what genetic errors a thyroid cancer has acquired. Some of these errors are associated with more aggressive tumour behaviour, but quite how that helps make treatment decisions is still a bit unclear.

Here's a useful discussion involving some key leaders in the field (always worth listening to what Dr Tuttle has to say on thyroid cancer).

In the hospital I work in (in New Zealand) we have decided not to include molecular testing. Instead we are going to wait until we can be convinced that such testing will result in better patient outcomes before we add it to what we do. However, we'll be watching this space with keen interest in the hope that it will soon offer clear benefits to patient care.

2 Comments
Jenni Eyerly link
4/20/2016 06:18:49 pm

Thanks for the useful information, and for looking out for your patients' best interests. It is heartening that doctors like you are questioning the tools available to them, not just in terms of gathering more information but in evaluating how that information might actually change treatments or outcomes.

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Tom Cawood link
4/21/2016 03:16:35 am

Thanks Jenni - pleased you've found the blog and that at least some of it is of interest!

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    Dr Tom Cawood
    Physician/Endocrinologist

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