The survival time of thyroid cancer varies greatly among individuals, some thyroid cancer patients can survive for decades or live with cancer for a long time, but some cannot. Factors affecting the survival time mainly include tumor type, clinical stage and age of onset of thyroid cancer. 1. Tumor type: there are 4 pathological types of thyroid cancer, and the prognosis is from good to bad: papillary carcinoma, follicular cell carcinoma, medullary carcinoma and undifferentiated carcinoma. Papillary carcinoma and follicular cell carcinoma are of low malignancy, and most patients can survive for a long time after surgery, iodine 131 and other systemic treatments; while undifferentiated thyroid cancer has the worst prognosis and relatively short survival time. 2. Clinical staging: Thyroid cancer can be divided into stages I, II, III and IV, which means that the earlier it is found, the better the treatment effect and the longer the survival time. For papillary cancer in stage Ⅰ, the 5-year survival rate after active treatment is more than 95%, and many patients can survive for decades. 3. Age of onset: since undifferentiated carcinoma is common in the elderly around 70 years old, follicular adenocarcinoma is common in the middle-aged people around 50 years old, and papillary carcinoma is common in the adults, the overall prognosis of young patients with thyroid cancer is better than that of the older ones, and the young patients can generally survive for several decades. After discovering thyroid cancer, you must seek medical treatment as early as possible to determine the type and stage, and then actively follow the doctor’s instructions for treatment to strive for the best therapeutic effect.