What is the metastatic rate of encapsulated follicular thyroid cancer?

Thyroid cancer is mainly divided into papillary thyroid cancer, follicular carcinoma, medullary carcinoma, and undifferentiated carcinoma, with papillary thyroid cancer being the most common in clinical practice, with a high rate of cervical lymph node metastasis, followed by follicular carcinoma, which often has a better prognosis. Follicular carcinoma is usually a single nodule, often invades blood vessels, and rarely has lymph node dissemination, with an incidence of about 8%-13%. The most common sites of distant metastases are bone metastases and lung metastases, but they can also involve the brain, liver, urinary tract and skin. The treatment of follicular carcinoma is mainly based on surgery, which requires removal of both thyroid glands at the same time. Even if there is no lymph node metastasis, preventive lymph node dissection is required, and after surgery, lifelong use of eugenol is required, and endocrine suppression is achieved, which means that T3 and T4 are normal and TSH is maintained near the lowest value. Further iodine therapy is required.