Differentiated Thyroid Cancer - long term follow up

[janetdmp]

The Weill Cornell Medical College suggests ‘All patients with a history of well-differentiated thyroid cancer should have yearly cervical ultrasound scanning, thyroglobulin and thyroglobulin antibodies. ‘
Why is annual cervical ultrasound scanning not included in the routine follow up care in the UK?

[Dr Petros Perros]

The British Thyroid Association and American Thyroid Association guidelines are probably the most authoritative guidelines around. They both recommend US after radioiodine ablation. The extent of monitoring and frequency of monitoring afterwards, depends on the risk classification. Patients with a low risk of recurrence (the majority) can be followed up by an annual examination of the neck and serum thyroglobulin measurements. This approach has been shown to be highly effective at picking up early recurrences and the addition of US does not improve the yield (and in some cases can mislead). My guess is that you fall in the low risk category (which is a good thing), and that is why you are not having routine US.