Background The clinical importance of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) remains
controversial, with current guidelines suggesting that thyroid lobectomy alone is sufficient.
The purpose of this study was to identify population-level treatment patterns in the USA for
PTMC. Methods Patients with PTMC in SEER (1998–2010) were included; demographic,
clinical (extent of surgery, administration of post-operative radioactive iodine [RAI]), and
pathologic characteristics were examined. Outcomes of interest were 5-and 10-year overall …

To the editor, Your esteemed journal published an article by Wang et al.[1],
entitled,''Papillary Thyroid Microcarcinoma: An Over-Treated Malignancy?''which we read
with great interest. This article suggests that many patients with papillary thyroid
microcarcinoma (PTMC) are over-treated, with no demonstrable benefit to survival, based on
a study of a large cohort of patients with PTMC. However, several questions still need to be
addressed. First, the authors reported no significant difference in the 5-and 10-year disease …