Management of Differentiated Thyroid Cancer: The Standard of Care

In the past decade, the management of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) underwent a paradigm shift toward the use of risk stratification with the goal of maximizing the benefit and minimizing the morbidity of radioiodine (¹³¹I) therapy. ¹³¹I therapy is guided by information derived from surgical histopathology, molecular markers, postoperative diagnostic radioiodine scintigraphy, and thyroglobulin levels. ¹³¹I is used for diagnostic imaging and therapy of DTC based on physiologic sodium-iodine symporter expression in normal and neoplastic thyroid tissue. We summarize the essential information at the core of multidisciplinary DTC management, which emphasizes individualization of ¹³¹I therapy according to the patient's risk for tumor recurrence.