Many patients, very understandably, ask about their prognosis. It is
extremely difficult to predict an individual’s risk of the cancer either
coming back after treatment or of it shortening someone’s life.
The temptation is for patients and their relatives to ask for a timescale
or likelihood of surviving the disease. The trouble is that the information
that doctors have does not accurately predict what will happen for an
individual patient.
The data we have on survival and the success of treatments is gained
from looking at groups of patients and you cannot accurately use this to
say with any certainty what will happen for one particular person. Even if
someone is thought to have a type of thyroid cancer where the chances
of surviving and living their life as if it never happened is thought to be
excellent it cannot be guaranteed. Likewise someone with a type of
thyroid cancer that is expected to behave in a more aggressive fashion
may do very well and hence better than expected.
