Surgical cases that can be safely deferred:
*Anaplastic thyroid cancer patients with BRAFV600E mutations should be offered BRAF/MEK inhibitor therapy initially and surgery can be deferred12.
**Generally, mildly symptomatic airway compression from large goiters is subacute or chronic, and does not require immediate intervention. Very rarely, a patient may present with significant and acute airway compromise, in which case surgery or airway intervention cannot be safely postponed.
***Most differentiated and medullary thyroid cancers are slow-growing tumors that don’t cause significant morbidity over the short-term, although there are a subset of more biologically aggressive cancers that progress more rapidly. Therefore, clinical correlation with rate of progression (if known), size, invasiveness of surrounding structures, and proximity to critical structures is recommended.
Phase II. Many COVID-19 patients, ICU and ventilator capacity limited, and/or Operating Room supplies limited.