Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2017 Dec;32(4):399-406.
doi: 10.3803/EnM.2017.32.4.399.

Active Surveillance of Papillary Thyroid Microcarcinoma: A Mini-Review from Korea

Tae Yong Kim  1 , Young Kee Shong  2
Affiliations
Review

Active Surveillance of Papillary Thyroid Microcarcinoma: A Mini-Review from Korea

Tae Yong Kim et al. Endocrinol Metab (Seoul). 2017 Dec.

Abstract

In Korea, the incidence of thyroid cancer increased explosively in the early 2000s, and reached a plateau in the early 2010s. Most cases of newly diagnosed thyroid cancer are small indolent microcarcinoma and could be good candidates for active surveillance (AS) instead of immediate surgery. Many considerations must be taken into account for establishing selection criteria for candidates for AS of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC), including the characteristics of the tumor, the patient, and the medical team. If possible, AS of PTMC should be a part of a prospective clinical trial to ensure long-term safety and to identify clinical and/or molecular markers of the progression of PTMC. In this review, we discuss lessons regarding surgical interventions for PTMC, and then describe the concept, application, caveats, unanswered questions, and future perspectives of AS of PTMC. For appropriately selected patients with PTMC, AS can be a good alternative to immediate surgery.

Keywords: Active surveillance; Thyroid neoplasms.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

References

    1. Jung KW, Won YJ, Oh CM, Kong HJ, Lee DH, Lee KH, et al. Cancer statistics in Korea: incidence, mortality, survival, and prevalence in 2014. Cancer Res Treat. 2017;49:292–305. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ahn HS, Kim HJ, Welch HG. Korea's thyroid-cancer “epidemic”: screening and overdiagnosis. N Engl J Med. 2014;371:1765–1767. - PubMed
    1. Nam-Goong IS, Kim HY, Gong G, Lee HK, Hong SJ, Kim WB, et al. Ultrasonography-guided fine-needle aspiration of thyroid incidentaloma: correlation with pathological findings. Clin Endocrinol (Oxf) 2004;60:21–28. - PubMed
    1. Kang HW, No JH, Chung JH, Min YK, Lee MS, Lee MK, et al. Prevalence, clinical and ultrasonographic characteristics of thyroid incidentalomas. Thyroid. 2004;14:29–33. - PubMed
    1. Jeon MJ, Kim WG, Kwon H, Kim M, Park S, Oh HS, et al. Clinical outcomes after delayed thyroid surgery in patients with papillary thyroid microcarcinoma. Eur J Endocrinol. 2017;177:25–31. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources