Diagnosing Thyroid Cancer
If doctors are concerned about thyroid cancer because they feel a lump in the area of the thyroid gland, they will usually perform an ultrasound test to gather more information. A needle biopsy is also often performed to determine the make-up of the lump. This is because not all lumps in the thyroid are cancerous. Other studies are done after the cancer is diagnosed to find out if the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes of the neck (usually with an ultrasound, a CT scan or an MRI) and to the chest (X-ray or CT scan).