Need for a Revised Staging Consensus in Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma

Abstract

The current 2002 TNM staging for medullary thyroid cancer appears inadequate, especially for patients with stage IV cancer. Elevated but stable calcitonin levels often do not portend unfavorable outcome. Patients with lymph node metastases, irrespective of their location, but without distant disease would seem best classified as having stage III cancer.