Experts Debate Benefits and Challenges of the American Thyroid Association Guidelines

Thyroid cancer occurs in the cells of the thyroid gland — a butterfly-shaped gland located at the base of your neck, just below your Adam’s apple. In a stimulating new Roundtable Discussion, a distinguished panel of leading physicians and clinical researchers highlight the key changes, new topics, and areas of ongoing controversy in the ’2015 American Thyroid Association Management Guidelines for Adult Patients with Thyroid Nodules and Differentiated Thyroid Cancer’. Led by Moderator Bryan Haugen, University of Colorado School of Medicine, the Roundtable features panelists Kenneth Burman, MedStar Washington Hospital Center and Georgetown University, Washington, DC; Ronald Koenig, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor; Susan Mandel, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Bryan McIver, Moffitt Cancer Center and Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa; Steven Sherman, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston; Jennifer Sipos, Wexner Medical Center at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus; and Julie Ann Sosa, Duke Cancer Institute and Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC.

The panelists, some of whom were members of the American Thyroid Association Guidelines Task Force on Thyroid Nodules and Differentiated Thyroid Cancer, discussed what they viewed to be the most helpful and the most challenging aspects of the new Management Guidelines, which include eight new questions, 21 new recommendations, and 21 recommendations that were significantly changed from the 2009 Guidelines. The spirited and informative discussion focused on topics such as when to perform total thyroidectomy versus lobectomy, when to use radioiodine therapy, stratifying management based on response to therapy, and how to manage patients when cytologic analysis of a tumor sample yields indeterminate results.

Peter A. Kopp, Editor-in-Chief of Thyroid and Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Molecular Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, said, "The guidelines provide a comprehensive framework for the state-of-the-art evaluation, treatment, and surveillance of patients presenting with thyroid nodules and thyroid cancer. Compared to the previous version, the updated guidelines integrate an impressive amount of new information and significant advances in the field. While these guidelines form a solid basis for our approach to these common clinical problems, the roundtable discussion and the guidelines also highlight areas that are in need of further investigation and refinements in the future."

Source-Eurekalert