Thyroid cancer: possible role of telemedicine

Telemedicine is extremely useful when distance could hinder diagnostic procedures, disease management, or when severe side-effects may occur in patients not within easy reach of medical care and requiring prompt action and specific therapies. Telemedicine has been successfully adopted in the management of chronic patients, particularly in those with cardiologic or oncologic diseases. In the treatment of differentiated thyroid cancer, requiring long-term check-ups and visits as well as administration of high doses of levothyroxine (TSH - thyroid-stimulating hormone - suppression), also in elderly patients, telemedicine seems particularly indicated. Moreover, these distant monitoring techniques could not only reduce long-term management costs but also considerably decrease cardiovascular risks associated with these patients. The present review aims to provide some general information on telemedicine and its possible fields of action with regard to distant monitoring of patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma.