Bay Biosciences provides fresh frozen (-80°) high quality, clinical grade sera (serum), plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) biofluid samples processed with patient’s whole-blood under customized processing protocols, with matching FFPE tumor tissue samples from unique untreated patients diagnosed with Thyroid cancer.
Thyroid Cancer Overview
Thyroid cancer is relatively uncommon in the United States compared to other cancers. Thyroid cancer occurs in the cells of the thyroid, a butterfly-shaped like gland located at the base of the neck, just below the Adam’s apple. The thyroid gland produces hormones that regulates the heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature and weight. Thyroid cancer occurs more often in women than in men.
Thyroid cancer typically doesn’t cause any signs or symptoms early in the disease. As thyroid cancer grows, it may cause symptoms such as a lump that can be felt on the neck, changes to the patient’s voice including hoarseness, difficulty swallowing food, pain in the neck and throat, swollen lymph nodes in the neck.
Thyroid cancer occurs when cells in the thyroid gland undergo genetic changes or mutations. The mutations allow the cells to grow and multiply rapidly. The cells also lose the ability to die, as normal cells would. The accumulating abnormal thyroid cells form a tumor. The abnormal cells can invade nearby tissue and can spread or metastasize to other parts of the body.
Types of Thyroid Cancer
There are different types of thyroid cancers which include:
- Papillary Thyroid Cancer: which is the most common type, it can occur at any age, but usually affects people between age 30 to 50. Papillary thyroid cancer arises from follicular cells, which produce and store thyroid hormones. It is also sometimes referred to as papillary thyroid cancer and follicular thyroid cancer together as differentiated thyroid cancer.
- Follicular Thyroid Cancer: Follicular thyroid cancer also arises from the follicular cells of the thyroid. It usually affects people older than age 50. Hurthle cell cancer is a rare and potentially more aggressive type of follicular thyroid cancer.
- Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer: Anaplastic thyroid cancer is a rare type of thyroid cancer that begins in the follicular cells. It grows rapidly and is very difficult to treat. Anaplastic thyroid cancer typically occurs in adults age 60 and older.
- Medullary thyroid carcinomas – Medullary thyroid cancer begins in thyroid cells called C cells, which produce the hormone calcitonin. Elevated levels of calcitonin in the blood can indicate medullary thyroid cancer at a very early stage. Certain genetic syndromes increase the risk of medullary thyroid cancer, although this genetic link is uncommon.
- Other rare types – Other very rare types of cancer that start in the thyroid include thyroid lymphoma, which begins in the immune system cells of the thyroid, and thyroid sarcoma, which begins in the connective tissue cells of the thyroid.
Signs and Symptoms of Thyroid Cancer
Thyroid cancer often presents as a lump or nodule in the thyroid and usually does not cause any symptoms. Neck examination by a doctor is a common way in which thyroid nodules and thyroid cancers are discovered . Often, thyroid nodules are found incidentally on imaging tests like CT scans and neck ultrasound done for completely unrelated reasons.
Rarely, thyroid cancers and nodules may cause symptoms. In these cases, patients may complain of pain in the neck, jaw, or ear. If a nodule is large enough to compress the windpipe or esophagus, it may cause difficulty with breathing, swallowing, or cause a “tickle in the throat”. Even less commonly, hoarseness can be caused if a thyroid cancer invades the nerve that controls the vocal cords.
Thyroid cancer typically doesn’t cause any signs or symptoms early in the disease. As thyroid cancer grows, it may cause:
- A lump (nodule) that can be felt through the skin on your neck near the Adams apple
- Changes to the voice, including increasing hoarseness
- Difficulty breathing
- Difficulty swallowing
- Pain in the neck and throat
- A cough that persists and is not caused by a cold
- Swollen lymph nodes in your neck
Causes of Thyroid Cancer
Exact causes of Thyroid cancer are not clear. Thyroid cancer occurs when cells in the thyroid undergo genetic mutations (changes). Certain mutations (changes) in a person’s DNA can cause thyroid cells to become cancerous.
The mutations allow the cells to grow and multiply rapidly. The cells also lose the ability to die, as normal cells would. The accumulating abnormal thyroid cells form a tumor. The abnormal cells can invade nearby tissue and can spread (metastasize) to other parts of the body. Cancers can be caused by DNA changes that turn on oncogenes or turn off tumor suppressor genes.
Risk Factors of Thyroid Cancer
The following factors may raise a person’s risk of developing thyroid cancer:
- Gender: Women are diagnosed with 3 of every 4 thyroid cancers.
- Age:Thyroid cancer can occur at any age, but about two-thirds of all cases are found in people between the ages of 20 and 55. Anaplastic thyroid cancer is usually diagnosed after age 60.
- Genetics: Some types of thyroid cancer are associated with genetics. Below are some key facts about this disease, genes, and family history.
- An abnormal RET oncogene, which can be passed from parent to child, may cause Medullary thyroid cancer.
- A family history of Medullary thyroid cancer increases a person’s risk. People with MEN2 syndrome are also at risk for developing other types of cancers.
- A family history of precancerous polyps in the colon, also called the large intestines, increases the risk of developing papillary thyroid cancer.
- Diet low in iodine: Iodine is needed for normal thyroid function. In the United States, iodine is added to salt to help prevent thyroid problems.
- Race: White people and Asian people are more likely to develop thyroid cancer, but this disease can affect a person of any race or ethnicity.
- Breast Cancer: A recent study showed that breast cancer survivors may have a higher risk of thyroid cancer, particularly in the first 5 years after diagnosis and for those diagnosed with breast cancer at a younger age. This finding continues to be examined by researchers.
- Radiation exposure: Exposure to moderate levels of radiation to the head and neck may increase the risk of papillary and follicular thyroid cancers.
Diagnosis of Thyroid Cancer
Following diagnostic tests and available options maybe used for diagnosing thyroid cancer:
- Physical examination
- Blood tests
- Thyroid hormone levels
- Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH)
- Tg and TgAb
- Medullary type-specific tests
- Ultrasound
- Biopsy
- Fine needle aspiration
- Surgical biopsy
- Molecular testing of the nodule sample
- Radionuclide scanning
- X-ray
- Computed tomography (CT or CAT) scan
- Positron emission tomography (PET) or PET-CT scan
Bay Biosciences is a global leader in providing researchers with high quality, clinical grade, fully characterized human tissue samples, bio-specimens and human bio-fluid collections from cancer (tumor) tissue, cancer serum, cancer plasma cancer PBMC and human tissue samples from most other therapeutic areas and diseases.
Bay Biosciences maintains and manages it’s own bio-repository, human tissue bank (biobank) consisting of thousands of diseased samples (specimens) and from normal healthy donors available in all formats and types. Our biobank procures and stores fully consented, deidentified and institutional review boards (IRB) approved human tissue samples and matched controls.
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Bay Biosciences banks wide variety of human tissue samples and biological samples including cryogenically preserved -80°C, fresh, fresh frozen tissue samples, tumor tissue samples, FFPE’s, tissue slides, with matching human bio-fluids, whole blood and blood derived products such as serum, plasma and PBMC’s.
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Bay Biosciences provides human tissue samples (human specimens) from diseased and normal healthy donors; including peripheral whole-blood, amniotic fluid, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL), sputum, pleural effusion, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), serum (sera), plasma, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC’s), saliva, Buffy coat, urine, stool samples, aqueous humor, vitreous humor, kidney stones, renal calculi, nephrolithiasis, urolithiasis and other bodily fluids from most diseases including cancer. We can also procure most human bio-specimens and can do special collections and requests of human samples that are difficult to find. All our human tissue samples are procured through IRB approved clinical protocols and procedures.
In addition to the standard processing protocols Bay Biosciences can also provide human plasma, serum, PBMC bio-fluid samples using custom processing protocols, you can buy donor specific sample collections in higher volumes and specified sample aliquoting from us. Bay Biosciences also provides human samples from normal healthy donors, volunteers, for controls and clinical research, contact us Now.
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