Joseph KR, et al. - Researchers quantitatively investigated the risks of elderly patients who underwent thyroidectomy for thyroid cancer regarding mortality/survival, recurrence of disease, and complications arising from thyroidectomy via conducting a systematic search and meta-analysis using the electronic databases PubMed and Medline. Elderly patients were noted to be at increased risk of recurrence including increased risk of lymph node recurrence and distant metastases. Furthermore, an increased risk of complications following thyroidectomy was noted in these patients compared to patients in the younger cohort. The current study also identified a reduced overall survival and disease-free survival for elderly patients. Findings thus support classifying elderly patients as higher risk following total thyroidectomy for thyroid cancer and put an emphasis on early detection and intervention in this population.