Is Stimulated Thyroglobulin Necessary after Ablation in All Patients with Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma and Basal Thyroglobulin Detectable by a Second-Generation Assay?

Table 1

Characteristics of the patients studied.

Characteristic	Result
Gender	115 women (88.4%)
	15 men (11.6%)
Age (years)	18 to 78 (median 48)
Tumor
Histological subtype	Classical: 105 (80.7%)
	Follicular variant: 25 (19.2%)
Multicentricity	45 (34.6%)
Size (TNM)^a	≤2 cm (pT1bNxM0): 45 (34.6%)
	2–4 cm (pT2NxM0): 65 (50%)
	>4 cm (pT3NxM0): 20 (15.4%)
Age > 45 years or tumor > 2 cm or multicentric	118 (90.7%)
Stage [17]	I: 83 (63.8%)
	II: 36 (27.7%)
	III: 11 (8.5%)
^131I activity	1.1 GBq: 68 (52.3%)
	3.7 GBq: 62 (47.7%)

Elective dissection of lymph nodes of the central compartment was not performed; thus, all patients were cN0pNx.