Follow-up after thyroid cancer treatment

Your follow-up care depends on different things, including the treatment you had.

In the first year, you usually have check-ups every few months. Eventually they are reduced to every 6 months or yearly. Some follow-up appointments might be with a specialist nurse or by phone.

At your face-to-face appointments, your doctor will examine you and you will have blood tests. They will explain if you need any other tests.

Your appointments are a good time to talk to your doctor or specialist nurse about any concerns you have.

You can ask about any symptoms you should be aware of, and what you can do to help with your recovery. If you notice any new symptoms between appointments, contact your doctor or specialist nurse for advice.

This information is about follow-up for papillary and follicular thyroid cancers. We have other information about medullary thyroid cancer (MRC) and anaplastic thyroid cancer.

Most people with papillary and follicular thyroid cancer can be cured with treatment. But it can take some time after treatment before you feel fit and well again.

Some people have treatment side effects that slowly improve over time, while others may have ongoing side effects. Instead of having specific treatment side effects, you may have a range of other effects, such as:

• trouble sleeping
• weight gain
• feeling weaker and more tired than usual.

It is important not to put yourself under any pressure. Recovery can take time and you need to do things at a pace that feels right for you. Taking good care of yourself and making even some small lifestyle changes can help.

Having a healthy, balanced diet is one of the best choices you can make for your overall health. It can also help to keep you to a healthy weight.

It can also help reduce the risk of new cancers and other diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes and strokes.

A well-balanced diet should include:

• lots of fruit and vegetables – at least 5 portions a day
• plenty of starchy foods (carbohydrates) – choose wholegrain types such as wholemeal bread, rice, pasta, noodles, couscous and potatoes
• some protein-rich foods, such as lean meat, poultry, fish, tofu, nuts, eggs and pulses (beans and lentils)
• some milk and dairy foods, such as cheese and yoghurt.
• plenty of water, or other non-alcoholic fluids.

Try to reduce your intake of:

• red meat and animal fats
• alcohol
• salted, pickled and smoked foods.

Before making major changes to your diet, it is a good idea to talk to your specialist or a dietitian at the hospital.

If you are thinking of taking any food supplements or over the counter vitamins, it is important to talk to your cancer doctor or specialist nurse first. This is because some of these may affect your thyroid blood test results.

If you smoke, speak to your doctor or call a stop-smoking helpline for further advice. They can tell you where your local stop-smoking service is.

Stopping smoking has many health benefits and reduces your risk of other diseases such as heart disease and stroke.

You can start gently and build up the amount of physical activity you do. There are different types of exercise you can try, such as:

• walking
• hiking
• cycling
• swimming.

NHS guidelines suggest you should:

• not regularly drink more than 14 units of alcohol in a week
• spread these units over 3 or more days in a week
• try to have several alcohol-free days every week.

There are different ways to reduce stress. Different people find different things helpful, but you could try the following:

• be more physically active
• make time to do things you enjoy
• complementary therapies, such as meditation or yoga
• talk to someone about your feelings or have counselling
• painting or drawing
• write a journal or online blog.

Being involved in your healthcare means:

• taking any medicines as instructed
• going to your follow-up appointments
• being aware of the symptoms of the cancer coming back
• telling your doctor or specialist nurse what is important to you.

We want everyone affected by cancer to feel our information is written for them.

We want our information to be as clear as possible. To do this, we try to:

• use plain English
• explain medical words
• use short sentences
• use illustrations to explain text
• structure the information clearly
• make sure important points are clear.

We use gender-inclusive language and talk to our readers as ‘you’ so that everyone feels included. Where clinically necessary we use the terms ‘men’ and ‘women’ or ‘male’ and ‘female’. For example, we do so when talking about parts of the body or mentioning statistics or research about who is affected.

You can read more about how we produce our information here.