Treatment of Differentiated Thyroid Cancer

분화된 갑상선암의 치료

During the last several decades, prognosis of differentiated thvroid cancers improved markedly, mainly due to refinement of surgical techniques and routine use of radioactive iodine. Total or neat-total thyroidectomy is to be performed as the first line of treatment. Routine remnant ablation just after surgery decreases recurrence and increases survival. After then patients are maintained on suppressive dose of thyroid hormone to keep endogenous TSH below normal. Regular follow-up of the patients with serum thyroglobulin measurement and iodine whole body scan after thyroid hormone withdrawal or under recombinant human thyrotropin stimulation select high risk patients with recurrence or metastatic disease and treatment with therapeutic dose of radioactive iodine prolongs survival and sometimes leads cure. Currently recommended diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, present controversies and future directions are discussed.