What is thyroid cancer?
Thyroid is a gland that is located in the neck, near the voice box. Cancer in this gland may cause it to swell up and be seen from the outside. This cancer may affect different cell groups in the gland and may either be benign or malignant. If benign, it does not spread and can be easily treated but if it is malignant, it can spread easily to other parts of the body very fast and needs immediate medical attention.
Smoking and thyroid cancer
Although till sometime back, they were thought to be unrelated, more and more evidence is now coming forth about their interrelationship. Cigarette smoke contains about four thousand different types of chemicals, most of them highly toxic. When these react with bodily chemicals and tissues, they may are capable of forming even more potent chemicals that are downright harmful to the body.
One such toxic chemical present in cigarettes is cyanide. This gets converted into thiocyanate. This chemical inhibits the absorption of iodide in the body and interferes with the synthesis of hormones. Thus, it works like anti-thyroid factor that hampers normal functioning of the thyroid gland. This and many more carcinogens get accumulated in the thyroid gland as it is very close to the respiratory passages in the neck. This eventually leads to cancer in the thyroid gland.
If the cancer is follicular and papillary cancers, then there is a good chance of it being detected and treated as they spread very slowly. If it is medullary cancer, it is a bit more difficult but can be treated if detected early enough. But if the cancer is anaplastic thyroid cancer, which is the rarest of the three, it is extremely difficult to treat as it spreads very fast and is difficult to control.
But the most intriguing and confusing thing in this is that it has been seen in some smokers that when they quit, they start having thyroid related problems. Quitting has been observed to cause or worsen the condition known as hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism is the underproduction of the thyroid hormone. Although not proven, this has been observed in many individuals.
This is why it is best to stay away from smoking and tobacco. If you are a smoker, you should quit as soon as possible to stop causing further harm to yourself.
