With the progress of society, people’s living standards have improved. More and more people start to pay more attention to their health and have a medical checkup every year. Ultrasound of the thyroid gland is a mandatory part of the checkup. Every year, ultrasound of thyroid gland can detect many people with thyroid nodules, and a significant number of these nodules have been treated with thyroid cancer after surgery. Nowadays, everyone talks about cancer. I don’t know that thyroid cancer is the lightest of all cancers. I remember that the original textbook said that thyroid cancer is the “happiest cancer”. Why? Firstly, thyroid cancer is highly differentiated; secondly, 131 iodine has a clear therapeutic effect on it. Some surgeons’ view of thyroid cancer treatment is surgery. In fact, this is only one stage of thyroid cancer treatment. Some patients have had several surgeries – after the surgery, they recur in a few years, and then they do it again after recurrence, and then they do it again. And so the cycle continues. I once saw one who had three surgeries! Why does it recur? Because thyroid cancer can metastasize within the gland. In other words, cancer from the left lobe of the thyroid can metastasize to the right lobe. During surgery, we can remove the cancer nodules that are visible to the naked eye, but we cannot remove the cancer cells that are not visible to the naked eye. At this point, some people will definitely say: Can’t we just remove all the thyroid glands during surgery? Yes, that’s exactly right! That’s what the guidelines for thyroid cancer treatment say – near or total thyroid excision. However, Marxism teaches us to link theory to practice. Yes, for various reasons, it is not possible to remove the thyroid gland completely during surgery. For example, total removal of the thyroid gland will cut away the parathyroid glands, which will cause abnormalities in calcium and phosphorus metabolism in the future; the thyroid gland is surrounded by the superior laryngeal nerve, the recurrent laryngeal nerve and some large blood vessels, so total removal of the thyroid gland will inevitably injure those nerves and blood vessels, causing choking and coughing, hoarseness and even loss of voice; the cancerous nodules adhere to the surrounding tissues, so total removal of the thyroid gland is not possible in order to protect the blood vessels and nerves during surgery, and so on. There are several other clinical factors that prevent complete removal of the thyroid gland. Some people are frustrated that since the thyroid cancer cannot be removed by surgery, it will recur frequently and surgery is always necessary. Actually, there is no need to worry, as I mentioned at the beginning of the article that 131 iodine is effective for thyroid cancer. This is the second step of thyroid cancer treatment – 131 iodine to remove the remaining thyroid tissue and metastases. Most thyroid cancers are highly differentiated and have the same ability as the thyroid gland – to take up iodine. Thus we introduce the isotope of iodine, 131 iodine, and use the beta rays it radiates to destroy the remaining thyroid and thyroid cancer metastases. I have covered the safety of 131 iodine treatment in previous articles, so I will not repeat it here. Since the thyroid gland has a higher capacity to absorb iodine than the thyroid cancer tissue, when treating it, we first remove the remaining thyroid tissue and then treat the thyroid cancer. The amount of thyroid gland surgically removed affects the number of times the thyroid cancer is treated with 131 iodine: the more thyroid tissue remaining, the more times the thyroid cancer is treated with 131 iodine. After both of these steps are done, the thyroid tissue is completely gone from the body. However, the treatment does not end there. The thyroid gland secretes hormones that are needed by all organs of the body. Without thyroxine, our muscles will experience: coldness, drowsiness, belly bloating, back pain, memory loss, slowed blood flow and other symptoms of hypothyroidism. At this point, we have to proceed to the third step of treatment – exogenous thyroxine support therapy. Exogenous thyroxine is used to supply the body with what it needs. Since the amount of thyroxine needed by the body is not constant, it is important to review thyroid function regularly while taking exogenous thyroxine in order to increase or decrease the amount of medication. In addition, TG, anti-TG should be tested during the treatment in order to keep track of whether there is any recurrence of thyroid cancer. To sum up, the correct treatment for thyroid cancer should be: surgical removal of most of the thyroid gland + postoperative 131 iodine to remove the remaining thyroid tissue and metastases of thyroid cancer + exogenous thyroxine support therapy. Only the organic combination of these three and the collaboration of related departments can make patients spend as little money as possible and still achieve the best treatment results.