Treatment of thyroid carcinoma.

In a review of thyroid surgery performed at Loma Linda University and its affiliated hospitals during the past 20 years, 254 (26%) of the thyroid surgery patients had thyroid carcinoma. The majority of these patients underwent total thyroidectomy and received postoperative radioactive iodine. At the present time, there is considerable disagreement in the literature regarding the extent of treatment needed for what, in many cases, is a low-grade malignancy. In the present series, there are a significant number of patients with extensive disease in which aggressive treatment is warranted to improve the chance of cure. We believe that total thyroidectomy with central node dissection is the minimum surgical procedure required.