What’s the thyroid cancer survival rate?

The majority of people who have thyroid cancer have the papillary type – which has a 5-year survival rate of almost 100% if the cancer is only in the thyroid gland itself. In fact, the same is true for follicular and medullary thyroid cancers.

With thyroid cancers that have spread, the 5-year survival rate is lower.

• for papillary thyroid cancer it can be as high as 80%.

• for follicular, around 63%

• for medullary, around 40%

For the rarer anaplastic thyroid cancer, 5-year survival rates for cancer only in the gland are around 30%, and it goes down to 4% if the cancer has spread.