After surgery to remove the thyroid gland, you may need thyroid hormone (levothyroxine) replacement therapy for the rest of your life. If you have medullary or undifferentiated thyroid cancer, you will need to take a dose of thyroid hormone that is aimed at maintaining thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels in the normal range; if you have papillary thyroid cancer, follicular thyroid cancer, or a variant thereof, you will need to set TSH control goals to determine the amount of levothyroxine you should use, depending on your risk of persistent or recurrent thyroid cancer. thyroxine dose. Your doctor will test your blood regularly to ensure that your thyroid hormone dose is adequate and effective. For low-risk patients, the target TSH target value is 0.1-0.5 mU/L, which is at or slightly below the low end of the normal range. This target to may change to control to within the normal range as the postoperative period increases; for intermediate or high risk patients, the dose of levothyroxine taken is intended to achieve suppression of TSH below the normal range. This is done to replenish the body with adequate amounts of thyroid hormone while preventing cancer cell growth. Initially, TSH may need to be suppressed to less than 0.1 mU/L. Later, depending on how the patient responds to treatment, the target TSH value may change.