Kerry, I have been doing some research on thyroid and bc, and, from what I have read, enlarged thyroid and bc are often found together:
Shering SG, Zbar AP, Moriarity M, McDermott EW, O'Higgins NJ, Smyth PP
Department of Surgery, St Vincent's Hospital, University College Dublin, Ireland.
We have investigated the controversial association between diseases of the thyroid gland and breast carcinoma using methodology which allows positive exclusion of cases of breast disease from control groups and the detection of subclinical alterations in thyroid volume using high resolution ultrasonography, thus addressing the deficiencies of earlier studies. Whereas the prevalence of hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism in patients with breast carcinoma and in healthy controls without clinical evidence of breast disease was similar, non-toxic goitre was more than twice as common in the breast carcinoma patients. Thyroid volumes were also significantly higher in breast carcinoma patients than in controls; using World Health Organisation criteria, 45.5% of breast carcinoma patients had thyroid enlargement compared with only 10.5% of controls. Finally, antithyroid peroxidase autoantibodies were twice as common in breast cancer patients than in controls. These findings provide clear evidence of a relationship between thyroid disease and breast carcinoma, although the mechanisms underlying this relationship require further study, future studies of breast cancer risk factors should therefore include assessment of thyroid function, antibody status and volume.
PMID: 9061284 Link:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...t_uids=9061284
Also, rads can cause your thyroid to shut down if it was in your radiation fields. There seems to be a lot of innocent reasons why this could happen; try to relax until your doctor tells you more about what is going on. Best of luck to you.
Hopeful