The treatment of cancer of the thyroid gland.

The optimum treatment for cancer of the thyroid depends on (a) the pathological type of tumor present and (b) the stage of the disease.In patients with well-differentiated papillary carcinoma, simple operation is usually adequate. In cases of most other types, more extensive operation, followed by adequate postoperative radiotherapy, is regarded as the treatment of choice. In terms of clinical stage, the primary treatment of most cases classified as Stage I or II should be surgical, and of most cases classified as Stage III or IV, radiological. The five-year survival rate in a series of nonterminal cases treated under such a program was 47 per cent. Persistent treatment of selected inoperable or metastatic lesions may result in unexpectedly long survivals.