Watchful waiting vs surgery: new study on tiny thyroid tumors

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: * Patients 18 years of age or older. * Newly diagnosed previously surgically untreated papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) or suspicious for PTC on fine needle aspiration biopsy of the thyroid. PTC must be \< 2 cm in maximal diameter on thyroid ultrasound. * The absence of metastatic cervical lymphadenopathy or gross extrathyroidal extension of PTC, as confirmed on neck ultrasound imaging. * The absence of other current absolute indication for thyroid or parathyroid surgery (e.g. severe hyperthyroidism that cannot be controlled medically, large goitre with severe compressive symptoms, or primary hyperthyroidism meeting surgical criteria). Exclusion Criteria: * Metastatic thyroid cancer (lymph nodes or distant). * History of prior thyroid surgery for any indication. * The primary PTC being on the trachea or immediately adjacent to the recurrent laryngeal nerve, and with progression would be deemed to be at high risk of growth into these critical structures. * Clinical signs, imaging, or laryngoscopy findings suggestive of locally advanced thyroid cancer (i.e. vocal cord paralysis due to the thyroid cancer or any clinical or radiographic signs of extrathyroidal invasion into adjacent structures such as the strap muscles of the neck, trachea or esophagus). * Known/suspected poorly differentiated or non-papillary thyroid cancer. * Medically unfit for surgery due to severe co-morbidity. Severe comorbidity may include another active malignancy with limited life expectancy of \< 1 year). * Pregnancy at the time of study enrollment. * Unable/unwilling to provide informed consent for the study or comply with study follow-up procedures due to current active physical limitations/medical co-morbidity, cognitive, or psychiatric impairment substance abuse, or other reasons.