Usefulness of PET-CT scan in recurrent thyroid cancer

• Main Authors: Gianlorenzo Dionigi, Fausto Fama', Salvatore Antonio Pignata, Antonella Pino, Alessandro Pontin, Ettore Caruso, Yantao Fu, Shijie Li, Carmelo Mazzeo, Hui Sun, Sergio Baldari
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. 2020-09-01
• Series: World Journal of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
• Subjects: Thyroid; Thyroidectomy; PET-CT; Thyroid cancer; Recurrence
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095881120300779

The aim of this paper is to discuss the risk of recurrence in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer and emphasize the importance of risk-group stratification, early recurrence identification and application of new imaging modalities, what is the PET-CT. Moreover, follow-up of patients with thyroid carcinoma should be carried out by specialized teams throughout life. Therefore, interdisciplinary case discussions in tumor conferences may improve the use of multimodal therapy especially in patients with poorly differentiated thyroid carcinomas. After baseline follow-up, if there is a suspicion of thyroid carcinoma, early PET-CT should be used for early detection and appropriate planning. Fortunately, due to the good localization possibility, the PET-CT enables a focused surgical procedure with avoidance of an unnecessary tumor search and thereby a reduction of the risk of injury of neighboring structures which is a concern with reoperative neck surgery.