Clinical importance of bilateral disease in patients with papillary thyroid cancer

Abstract

A cancer-related factor that is not included in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) prognostic scoring systems is bilaterality. While it may seem that bilaterality should be considered during the management of PTC, its clinical importance has been debated. This controversy exists because the extent of surgery for PTC has not been found to affect survival in low-risk individuals, despite their potential for PTC bilaterality. We sought to determine if PTC bilaterality is a cancer prognosticator based upon its association with known clinical and pathological PTC prognosticators, and MACIS scores. In this article we discuss our findings and their potential clinical implications.