2015 American Thyroid Association Management Guidelines for Adult Patients with Thyroid Nodules and Differentiated Thyroid Cancer: The American Thyroid Association Guidelines Task Force on Thyroid Nodules and Differentiated Thyroid Cancer
- Study type
- Clinical guideline
- Study name
- ATA 2015
- Design
- Evidence-based clinical practice guideline (developed by the American Thyroid Association task force)
- Source
- Thyroid® · 2016
In plain words
This document is a comprehensive guide for doctors that explains how to investigate and treat thyroid lumps (nodules) and differentiated thyroid cancer in adults. It covers diagnosis, surgery, radioactive iodine treatment, medicines and later follow-up. Decisions about each person's treatment should be made with the treating doctor and based on the patient's own circumstances.
Study population
Adult patients with thyroid nodules and differentiated thyroid cancer. English-language publications on adults were eligible for the evidence review.
Endpoints
This guideline is not a clinical trial and has no endpoint. Its aim is to inform clinicians, patients, researchers and health policy makers about the published evidence on the diagnosis and management of thyroid nodules and differentiated thyroid cancer.
Safety and side effects
No adverse event data are reported in the abstract of this guideline.
Clinical significance and place in guidelines
This guideline is a revision of the 2009 American Thyroid Association guideline and, according to the authors, reflects current optimal care for patients with thyroid nodules and differentiated thyroid cancer. Its scope ranges from nodule evaluation and biopsy to surgery, radioactive iodine, TSH suppression, follow-up and management of recurrent or metastatic disease. The abstract does not give the exact recommendations or the level of evidence for each; the full text should be consulted for details. The current status of the guideline (existence of newer versions) should also be checked.
Limitations
The abstract lists only the general topics of the recommendations and does not include the text or level of evidence of specific recommendations. Only English-language publications on adults were reviewed. This guideline therefore does not cover children. Whether the guideline is current relative to later versions should be checked.
This summary was prepared by the editorial team from the published paper; the original paper is the final reference. Read the original abstract on PubMed.