TABLE 6.

Postoperative Surveillance Strategy Based on the American Thyroid Association Risk Category

	6 mo	12 mo	18 mo	24 mo
Thyroglobulin	All	All	All	All
Neck ultrasound	–	All	–	All
Diagnostic RAI scan	–	–	Intermediate/ high risk	–
CT/MRI	–	High risk	–	High risk
PET scan	–	High risk	–	High risk

Abbreviations: All, low, intermediate, and high risk; CT, computed tomography; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging; PET, positron emission tomography; RAI, radioactive iodine.

The cost to detect a recurrence in a low-risk patient is more than 7 times greater than the cost for a high-risk papillary thyroid cancer patient. It is difficult to justify this allocation of resources, and surveillance strategies for the low-risk group should be reviewed.