[Need for thyroidectomy in differentiated thyroid cancers]

In a retrospective case series study we compared data collected from 142 unselected patients with cancer of the thyroid gland treated in 1985-1994 with results from corresponding studies with reference to the necessity for radical thyroidectomy in cases of differentiated thyroid carcinoma. We standardly treated our patients by either primary or subsequent complete total thyroidectomy within 48 h after initial surgery followed by 131I ablation, achieving an overall R0 tumor clearance in 94.1% of cases. Recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy was diagnosed postoperatively in 7.7% of cases. Local tumor recurrence or nodal or distant spread occurred in 16.9% of patients with papillary, 9.1% of patients with follicular and 10% of patients with medullary carcinoma. Only one patient with papillary thyroid carcinoma died after 5 years at the age of 82, whereas 83% of anaplastic cancer patients died within 3 years. We conclude from our data that radical surgery ought to be performed for both differentiated thyroid cancer and undifferentiated cancer to reduce the rate of recurrence. When surgical management is careful radical thyroidectomy as standard treatment is associated with a reasonable rate of perioperative morbidity.