Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine cancer, and the incidence of papillary thyroid carcinoma is increasing, primarily because of increased imaging and diagnosis (1, 2, 3, 4). Some evidence suggests that there may be a real increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer and mortality rates (5). The pooled prevalence of thyroid cancer at autopsy is 11% among decedents who died of other causes (6).

The current trend among thyroidologists is to not overdiagnose and/or overtreat subclinical differentiated thyroid cancer (5). The type of thyroid surgical procedures performed generally depends on preoperative assessments (7, 8). Traditionally, 85% of patients with follicular cell–derived thyroid cancer (FCDTC) undergo bilateral thyroidectomy with central lymph node sampling. The American Thyroid Association (ATA) Guidelines Task Force on Thyroid Nodules and Differentiated Thyroid Cancer published revised guidelines in January 2016 stating that active surveillance may be an option for low-risk papillary tumors less than 1.5 cm in diameter (9). Moreover, lobectomy alone without lymph node sampling was recommended for low-risk FCDTC (5, 9). Consequently, thyroid surgeons are now performing more lobectomies for low-risk FCDTC, according to ATA guidelines (5, 10). This report describes the characteristics and outcomes of all stages of FCDTC in patients seen during the 2015 calendar year by one thyroidologist at a referral center. At Mayo Clinic, patients with thyroid cancer are seen by 1 of 7 thyroidologists. Initial thyroid surgical procedures were performed in 2015 or earlier, which were guided by ATA guidelines published in 2009 and thereby represent the standard practice before the revised ATA guidelines were published in 2016 (9, 11).