Surgical treatment strategy for thyroid gland carcinoma nodal metastases

The authors present their experience with surgical treatment for nodal metastases of thyroid carcinoma based on neck dissections. The specificity of the surgical approach to the lymph nodes was determined by the biologic behavior of each thyroid tumor. Using the available literature on metastases from thyroid tumors, an opinion is supported that surgery for differentiated carcinomas (papillary and follicular neoplasms) can be more conservative and can be safely limited to modified neck dissections. In contrast, a more extended type of selective neck dissection, and only rarely a comprehensive neck dissection, is needed for medullary carcinoma. Because of its rapid spread to distant sites local aggressivity, extirpation of individual lymph nodes or neck dissection is not justified in patients with anaplastic thyroid carcinoma.