The Medical Procedure Sarah Huckabee Sanders Underwent That Left A Massive Scar On Her Neck

Though some sectors of society may have a higher risk of cancer than others, anyone can receive a diagnosis. In 2022, former White House Press Secretary and current Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders revealed to the press that she had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and successfully underwent surgery to treat it (via CBS News).

A year later, Huckabee shared in a Facebook post that she was "still cancer-free." However, due to the surgical procedure, she carried a scar that she said "runs the length of [her] neck," serving as an everyday reminder of her experience facing cancer.

A thyroidectomy involves removing some or all of the thyroid, which is a hormone-regulating gland (frequently described as being shaped like a butterfly) that sits above the collarbone at the bottom of the neck. Doctors routinely recommend thyroidectomies for patients with thyroid cancer like Huckabee had. (If you have hyperthyroidism, you may also be a candidate for a thyroidectomy.)

Huckabee reportedly had the most prevalent type of thyroid cancer, called papillary thyroid carcinoma. (Here's what it's like to have thyroid cancer.) The Cleveland Clinic estimates that 80% to 85% of people with thyroid cancer have papillary thyroid carcinoma, which can spread into the lymph nodes (which happened to Huckabee). 

Thyroidectomies are standard treatments to remove all the cancer. Each year, surgeons perform about 93,000 thyroidectomies, per a 2013 paper in Thyroid. Most thyroidectomies are performed to treat thyroid cancer; they may be followed by other treatments or therapies as recommended.

After Huckabee's successful thyroidectomy, her physician, Dr. John R. Sims, said that although she would need to be treated further with radioactive iodine, he didn't think that her surgery would end up slowing her down. At the time, Huckabee was running in the Arkansas gubernatorial race, which she won later in the year.

Although the scar from a thyroidectomy can be long and visible, not every patient finds it terribly bothersome. In a 2021 survey of 98 thyroidectomy patients (via the Archives of Endocrinology and Metabolism), nearly all of them felt "no functional or visual discomfort" regarding their scars. That said, patients who feel otherwise can work with doctors to reduce the appearance of their scars through various means (e.g., injectable silicone gels).

Thyroid cancer accounts for 2.2% of new cancers diagnosed annually (via the National Cancer Institute). However, it is highly treatable — and survivable. A full 98.4% of individuals who receive a thyroid cancer diagnosis are still living five years later.

That said, although removal of the thyroid can send cancer into remission, having any cancer once can increase an individual's chance of being diagnosed with a second cancer. As a 2013 study in the European Journal of Endocrinology shows, someone who has had thyroid cancer is at a 33% higher risk of developing another cancer.

Cancer is not a new occurrence in Huckabee's immediate family. In 2023, Huckabee shared that her mother developed spinal cancer at a young age. Having a parent who was diagnosed with cancer can elevate a person's likelihood of cancer by around 5% to 10% due to the inheritance of an abnormal gene (per the American Cancer Society).