Table 4. . Longitudinal follow-up of the patients in the prospective study: disease location.

Category	Number of patients in each category
Disease location†	None known	Cervical	Pulmonary	Skeletal	Hepatic
Baseline status‡	29	5	4	0	0
1-year follow-up	28	5	5	0	0
2-year follow-up	28	4	4	0	0
3-year follow-up	29	3	4	0	1
4-year follow-up	30	5	4	1	1
5-year follow-up	6	2	1	0	1

^†n = 38 patients for initial status and years 1–4, n = 9 for fifth year of follow-up, may be more than one disease location per patient.

^‡Baseline disease status after initial treatment was assessed based on a combination of surgical pathology, results of postoperative radioiodine scanning and postoperative thyroglobulin measurement at approximately 2 months after surgery.