Is surgery not recommended for thyroid cancer?

It is not accurate to say that surgery is not recommended for thyroid cancer. Generally speaking, whether a thyroid cancer patient needs surgical treatment should be determined based on the stage of thyroid cancer, pathological type, etc. For early differentiated thyroid cancers such as papillary thyroid cancer and follicular carcinoma, surgical treatment is usually recommended.

1. No surgery required: If it is thyroid micropapillary carcinoma or follicular carcinoma, and there is no lymph node metastasis, it is usually an early lesion. At this time, it can be treated by conservative observation and regular thyroid ultrasound and thyroid function tests. If the tumor is found to be enlarged or there are other abnormalities during follow-up, surgical resection is required in a timely manner;

2. Surgery is required: If it is a mid- to late-stage papillary thyroid cancer or follicular thyroid cancer, lymph node metastasis may have occurred. In this case, it is recommended to follow the doctor's advice for surgical treatment, such as total resection, hemisection, etc. In addition, for thyroid cancers such as undifferentiated cancer and medullary cancer, due to their high degree of malignancy, timely surgical treatment is also required.

In clinical practice, some patients who cannot tolerate surgery can also be improved by radioactive iodine-131 treatment. However, this treatment cannot be used for patients with lung metastasis.