My blood test showed an elevated level of tg antibodies. does that mean i have cancerous cells running around? had papillary thyroid cancer a year ago

May or may not: Tg ab levels will elevate in autoimmune thyroiditis like hashimoto's disease if you do not have total thyroidectomy may not be cancer, if you total thyroidectmy , elivation of tg antibodies is a predictor of recurrence , most likely in the lymph nodes, TSH levels are also to be done. Please speak to your doctor.

Not necessarily.: Having elevated tg antibodies primarily means that the more important tg test itself will be falsely lower than its true value. (no conversion formula exists.) if your tg antibodies are only 20 or so, with an undetectable tg level, it is hard to know what that means. If your tg antibodies are much higher, then concern for the presence of thyroid cancer would increase.