Abstract
Staging is an essential component of cancer care. It is necessary to estimate prognosis, develop treatment plans, facilitate communication, and establish a bases for research efforts. Various clinicopathologic features of papillary thyroid cancer have been used to create a large number of staging systems. These systems incorporate preoperative risk factors, intraoperative findings, and postoperative results to estimate mortality and to a lesser degree recurrence. Preoperatively environmental exposures, age, gender, and genetics contribute to risk assessment in addition to physical exam and ultrasonographic findings. Intraoperative thyroid gland and lymph node assessment is important for guiding management both intraoperatively and postoperatively. Finally, postoperative response to therapy is becoming a guiding principle in the dynamic staging of patients with papillary thyroid cancer. This chapter discusses the evolution of staging systems for papillary thyroid cancer as well as patient and tumor characteristics that are evaluated at different time intervals as part of the staging process.