Adjunctive local approaches to metastatic thyroid cancer

Abstract

The overwhelming majority of differentiated thyroid cancers are curable, and this optimistic outlook applies particularly to stage I, II, and most stage III tumors. Stage IV tumors are typically and clearly in a different category, as the prognosis is significantly worse once distant metastases are present. In the author's view, a worse prognosis is not a justification for therapeutic nihilism but instead demands more aggressive therapy, with the hopeful expectation of improving outcome and prognosis. Not infrequently, some stage I and II patients have local disease that is resistant to ablation by conventional surgery and radioiodine. © 2006 Humana Press Inc.