The quality of the surgical procedure is crucial. If the thyroid and the surrounding lymph nodes are completely removed, you have an excellent chance of recovery. Depending on the precise characterization of the form of thyroid cancer, additional treatments are available, the most important of which is based on the ability of (malignant) thyroid cells to take up iodine. This makes it relatively easy (one tablet of radioactive iodine must be taken) to rid the entire body of malignant thyroid tissue. It is important that the thyroid operation must take place beforehand and that the success of this therapy depends on the quality of the surgery. The aim of radioiodine therapy is to treat micrometastases that are potentially already present in lymph nodes. Inadequate surgical technique (for example, small remnants of thyroid tissue are left around the recurrent laryngeal nerve in order not to insult it) results in all the radioactive iodine being concentrated in this residual tissue and nothing left for the actual purpose (destruction of the microscopic lymph nodes – or distant metastases) is available.

Thanks to careful surgical technique and modern aids such as magnifying glasses and neuromonitoring, surgical techniques in which tissue is left behind, “near-total thyroidectomy” or the so-called “Dunhill procedure” are now obsolete and I reject these methods. After a successful, technically flawless operation and additional therapy, a normal life expectancy can be expected in most cases.