Thyroid cancer

The management of thyroid cancer is difficult because the tumors comprise a wide range of biologic behaviors, from small papillary thyroid microcarcinomas that pose little or no threat to survival for the patient, to anaplastic thyroid cancers that are arguably the most lethal tumor. Although it may be difficult initially to determine at which end of the prognostic spectrum a patient resides, one can ordinarily estimate a patient's risk for tumor recurrence and mortality based on a triad of features as simple as the patient's age at the time of diagnosis, the tumor stage at presentation, and its initial response to therapy.
Sipos & Mazzaferri, 2008…