The latest Taiwan cancer registration report from the Health Promotion Administration of the Ministry of Health and Welfare shows that thyroid cancer ranked ninth among the top ten cancers among Taiwanese in 2014, and fifth among females. The incidence of thyroid cancer has been on the rise in Taiwan and abroad over the past decade.

In accordance with the Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Quality Improvement Program of the Health Promotion Administration, our hospital established a multidisciplinary team for thyroid cancer treatment in November 2013, including endocrinology, general surgery, nuclear medicine, otolaryngology, radiology, pathology, and case managers. The team discusses treatment methods for all new diagnoses, relapses, complex cases with imaging findings and pathological characteristics, and difficult-to-treat cases. Since the establishment of the team, the quality of thyroid disease treatment in our hospital has greatly improved. In response to the increasing demand for thyroid disease treatment, our hospital further expanded and established the Thyroid Medicine Center in August 2018, integrating the experience of multidisciplinary teams in the medical center to serve a larger number of thyroid patients nationwide.

Thyroid surgery has developed rapidly in the past twenty years. From the early days of large neck incisions to the endoscopic-assisted thyroidectomy pioneered and promoted by Italian Professor Miccoli, to the robot-assisted thyroidectomy in Korea, different options are available for thyroid surgery. Non-neck-incision thyroid surgery is also known as oncoplastic thyroid surgery. Endoscopic thyroidectomy through natural orifices was first attempted by a German physician but was criticized for its high surgical risk and complications. Thai endocrine surgeons, such as Angkoon Anuwong, have adopted a new approach to perform endoscopic thyroidectomy through oral access, which has gained attention and is considered a feasible method of thyroid surgery due to low complications and infections. After several years of development and implementation, this surgery has gradually been used worldwide. Our hospital has also been committed to developing oncoplastic thyroid surgery in recent years and has accumulated considerable experience and mature technology in performing endoscopic thyroidectomy through natural orifices and robot-assisted thyroidectomy.

In recent years, there have been various advances and developments in the treatment of patients with advanced or metastatic thyroid cancer. Regardless of the scope of surgery, radioactive iodine therapy, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or targeted drug therapy, integrating interdisciplinary discussions and cooperation will improve treatment outcomes for patients.

In addition to serving the vast number of domestic patients, the Thyroid Medical Center is also actively developing international medical services and increasing exchanges and clinical research cooperation with domestic and foreign medical centers. The most important thing is to provide patients with satisfactory medical services and become an internationally renowned thyroid medical center.