How Many Contralateral Papillary Thyroid Carcinomas Can Be Missed

Background When surgeons decide to perform lobectomy as the treatment of papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTCs), they must consider the possibility of contralateral cancer. We wanted to determine the incidence of bilateral PTCs (bPTCs) and analyze their characteristics. We also wanted to determine how many patients with bPTC were missed preoperatively.