Primary papillary thyroid carcinoma previously treated incompletely with radiofrequency ablation

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) recently has been applied to benign thyroid nodules, mainly for the cosmetic reasons, and limited cases of local recurrences or focal distant metastases of well-differentiated thyroid cancer, in the high-risk reoperative condition or for the palliative purpose. But no report has been made on the RFA for primary thyroid cancer to date. We report on a patient with primary papillary carcinoma of thyroid gland who had undergone RFA before the cytological diagnosis of malignancy, later referred and treated with robotic surgery successfully. We can learn the following lessons from our case; (1) the RFA for operable primary thyroid malignancy should be avoided, because of the possibility of remnant viable cancer and undetectable nodal metastasis, and (2) robotic or endoscopic thyroid surgery may be a feasible operative method for benign or malignant thyroid nodules previously treated with RFA.