Children with risk factors for developing hereditary medullary thyroid cancer are advised to undergo genetic testing in advance. After being detected as carrying the RET gene mutation, they should be examined regularly and treated in the early stages of disease onset. Some of the children have already developed the disease at the time of diagnosis, so how should they be treated? How should children be treated when they are diagnosed with medullary thyroid cancer? Once the disease has developed, surgery is the treatment of choice for medullary thyroid cancer. Is surgery taken immediately or is it elective? Elective surgery, but not delayed until one or two years later, is generally recommended 2 to 3 months after diagnosis. Is the surgery to remove all or part of the thyroid gland? The standard procedure for medullary thyroid cancer is total thyroidectomy. The thyroid gland is shaped like a butterfly and grows on both sides of the trachea. After a lesion on one side, the other side may be intact, but as long as there are parafollicular cells in the thyroid gland, there is a possibility of cancer. So all potentially cancerous thyroid tissue is removed.