External irradiation in treatment of papillary carcinoma of the thyroid.

A retrospective review of thirty patients with papillary carcinoma of the thyroid with metastatic or direct extension of their disease was undertaken. These thirty patients were treated by a standard surgical procedure and postoperative high dose orthoirradiation with an average twenty-one year follow-up period. Results of this treatment are compared with those of eighty similar patients treated by surgery alone. The primary treatment of papillary carcinoma of the thyroid remains surgical but with a consideration that irradiation may be of benefit in certain instances.