Photographs of Metastatic Papillary Thyroid Cancer -

The x's show the lumps in the neck that can be felt on examination. These are lymph nodes that have received cancer cells from the primary cancer in the thyroid gland.

These are some of the lymph nodes with cancer in them. Notice the black discoloration, papillary cancer is sometimes, but not always, black in color, especially after having spread to lymph nodes.

This is the neck after removal of all the cancerous lymph nodes, the vital structures remain. You can see the carotid artery that brings blood to the brain, some large nerves muscles etc. This operation takes about 45 minutes to do, leaves no deficit or disability when done properly, and scarring is usually quite minimal depending on the patient.

This is the entire neck dissection specimen which contains all the lymph nodes than contain cancer cells that spread from the thyroid. This patient, because of the extent of his disease, will receive a dose of radioactive lodine post-operatively. His prognosis is quite good.