Endocrine oncology

Cancer of a hormone gland rarely calls on one specialist alone. We bring surgery, scanning and drug treatment together, and at Mediclinic Airport Road Hospital they're on a single site. After thyroid surgery, you take tablets that replace the hormones it used to make.

What is endocrine oncology?

Endocrine oncology treats cancers of the hormone glands. Most of that is thyroid cancer. The thyroid sits low at the front of your neck, and a lump there is what people notice. Cancer also starts in the adrenal glands, one above each kidney. The hormone-making cells lining your gut can turn cancerous too, and doctors call those tumours neuroendocrine. An endocrinologist looks after hormone problems that aren't cancer, and we look after the ones that are.

When should you see a specialist?

Book an appointment if you notice:

• A lump or swelling in the front of your neck
• A hoarse voice or sore throat that lasts more than three weeks
• Pain in your neck, or a feeling of pressure in your throat
• Flushing or diarrhoea that keeps coming back
• Headaches with a pounding heartbeat and heavy sweating

Difficulty swallowing or breathing needs urgent medical advice rather than a routine appointment.

Most lumps in the thyroid aren't cancer, but yours still needs checking, and you may come to us with no symptom at all. A scan for something else can pick up a nodule, and some hormone conditions run in families. Thyroid cancer is one of the more commonly diagnosed cancers in the UAE, and more common in women than in men. If you had treatment before, your check-ups carry on for years, because thyroid cancer can come back.

What to expect

Your first appointment starts with questions about what's brought you in, and an examination of your neck. An ultrasound scan of the thyroid usually follows, since it shows a lump's size and shape more clearly than an examination can. A blood test checks how the gland is working. We take a fine needle sample from the lump when the scan leaves any doubt. The laboratory looks at it under a microscope.

What the sample shows decides what's next, and surgery usually comes first. We remove part or all of the thyroid gland, and the lymph nodes in your neck if the cancer reached them. You may then take radioactive iodine, as a tablet or drink, to clear thyroid tissue we could not reach. Your specialist sets out the choices with you, and you'll have regular check-ups during and after any treatment.

Endocrine oncology at Mediclinic

In Abu Dhabi, our surgeons at Mediclinic Airport Road Hospital take out part or all of a thyroid gland. They monitor the nerves that control your voice, and clear the neck glands if a cancer's spread that far. Radioactive iodine, and the scans that guide it, come from our nuclear medicine department on the same site.

Thyroid cancer in Dubai sits with our head and neck unit. That unit, at Mediclinic Parkview Hospital, also takes on a swollen thyroid, or goitre, and the parathyroid glands beside it. We identify what a neck swelling is before treating it. Further scans at the Mediclinic City Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Centre look for neuroendocrine tumours, carcinoid among them.

Our medical oncology teams give chemotherapy, targeted medicines and immunotherapy, among other drug treatments. Whether an endocrine cancer needs any of those is your specialist's call, since they're mostly medicines for other cancer types. Every case goes to one of our tumour boards, where specialists from different fields agree the plan.