Puzzle over active surveillance for micropapillary thyroid carcinoma.

It is worth distinguishing between the two strategies of management for low risk micropapillary thyroid cancer (MPTC). Immediate therapy, whereas active surveillance (AS) entails delivering curative treatment on signs of disease progression. AS appears to reduce overtreatment in patients with low-risk MPTC without compromising cancer-specific survival at 10 years. Therefore, AS is an option for select patients who want to avoid the side-effects inherent to the different types of immediate treatment. However, inclusion criteria for AS and the most appropriate method of monitoring patients on AS have not yet been standardized.