Stages and types of thyroid cancer

Your type of thyroid cancer depends on what type of cell the cancer started in. The most common type is papillary thyroid cancer.

TNM staging shows the size of your cancer (T), whether it has spread to lymph nodes (N) and whether it has spread to other parts of your body (M).

The number staging system for papillary and follicular thyroid cancer is the same. It is different to the number staging system for medullary and anaplastic thyroid cancers.

There are 4 stages for medullary thyroid cancer, The stage tells you about the size of the cancer and whether it has spread.

The number staging system usually groups cancers into 4 groups, stage 1 to 4. Anaplastic thyroid cancers are considered to be stage 4 at diagnosis.