Psychological impact of thyroid surgery on patients with well-differentiated papillary thyroid cancer

Most patients with well-differentiated thyroid cancer (WDTC) have favorable prognosis and survive for many years. We investigated the effect of thyroid cancer surgery on subsequent psychological aspects. Demographic parameters, clinical characteristics, and other data were obtained from self-administered questionnaires administered to WDTC patients at various times after thyroid cancer surgery. The questionnaires assessed psychological aspects based on three scales: a performance of everyday activities questionnaire developed for this study, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and the Fear of Progression Questionnaire (FoP-Q). The mean time since thyroid surgery and the survey was 3.5 years. More than half of the patients (60.7%) were able to perform all activities without limitations. The HADS scores indicated no anxiety or depression in most patients, and the FoP-Q scores indicated little fear of cancer progression. The time since surgery, type of surgery, use of postoperative radioiodine ablative therapy, and recurrence or metastasis had no significant effect on the psychological scores. Our study indicates that most WDTC patients are psychologically stable after the thyroid cancer surgery.