| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 24, 2006 |
For more information, please contact the ATA at thyroid@thyroid.org. |
Helping Doctors Provide the Best Care for Thyroid Cancer
Patients
Is the Focus of New Guidelines
Thyroid Specialists Publish Updated Recommendations in the Journal Thyroid
FALLS CHURCH, VA—The American Thyroid Association (ATA), www.thyroid.org, has released updated guidelines for the management of patients with thyroid nodules and thyroid cancer, which reflect a decade of improved strategies for identifying, evaluating, and treating thyroid disorders. The new thyroid cancer guidelines have been pre-published online (www.liebertpub.com/thy) and will be available in print in the February 2006 (Volume 16, Number 2) issue of Thyroid, a leading source of peer-reviewed research on thyroid disorders, published by the ATA.
The ATA first published guidelines on this topic in 1996. The new guidelines, therefore, take into account the significant advances in the diagnosis and treatment of both thyroid nodules and differentiated thyroid cancer since then. Prepared by the ATA’s Guidelines Task Force — composed of experts in endocrinology, surgery, and nuclear medicine from leading academic and research institutions from across the United States — the guidelines cover broad clinical territory, discussing in great detail the management of thyroid cancer, providing algorithms for a very complicated clinical problem, and discussing some of the more unusual aspects of thyroid cancer management.
“These new guidelines will help physicians not well-versed in thyroid cancer to better manage their patients,” said Task Force Chair and ATA President-Elect David S. Cooper, MD, Director of the Division of Endocrinology at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore and Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “In addition, for those who are very experienced thyroidologists, the guidelines should help them manage complex cases as well as understand the controversies better and where further research needs to be done.”
The guidelines also address many controversial treatment issues. These include identifying the most cost-effective approach for diagnostic evaluation of thyroid nodules, the extent of surgery needed for small thyroid cancers, the appropriate use of thyroxine suppression therapy, the role of recombinant human thyrotropin, and the use of radioactive iodine to ablate remnant tissue following thyroidectomy.
The recommendations also address the importance of the timely and accurate diagnostic evaluation of thyroid nodules to rule out thyroid cancer and on therapeutic strategies for differentiated thyroid cancer, which represents approximately 90 percent of the estimated 26,000 cases of thyroid cancer diagnosed each year in the United States.
The guidelines include hands-on information for the follow up and treatment of thyroid nodules, including the role of medical therapy. The goals of therapy for differentiated thyroid cancer, strategies for staging thyroid tumors, the role of adjunctive external beam radiation and chemotherapy, and long-term management issues are also provided.
“I am gratified that the ATA had the foresight to develop evidence-based guidelines that will enable physicians who care for patients with thyroid disease to do so rationally, judiciously, and cost effectively,” said Dr. Cooper.
Thyroid, edited by Terry F. Davies, MD , of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Bone Diseases at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly in print and online. As the official journal of the ATA, Thyroid publishes original papers and timely reviews that reflect the rapidly advancing changes in the understanding of thyroid physiology and pathology, from the molecular biology of the cell to clinical management of thyroid disorders. A complete table of contents and free sample issue may be viewed online at www.liebertpub.com/thy.
The American Thyroid Association is a nonprofit professional medical society composed of physicians and scientists dedicated to enhancing the understanding of thyroid physiology and pathophysiology, improving diagnosis and treatment of thyroid diseases, and promoting the education of physicians, patients, and the public about thyroid disorders.
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