The last 10 years have seen a major paradigm shift in the management of thyroid cancer,
with greater reliance on serum thyroglobulin and neck ultrasonography, and less emphasis
on routine diagnostic whole-body radioactive iodine scanning for detection of recurrent
disease. As our follow-up tests become more sensitive for detection of recurrent disease, we
are finding many asymptomatic patients who have low-level persistent disease many years
after initial therapy that may or may not benefit from additional testing and therapy. These …