Surgery and radioiodine remain as conventional and established treatments for nodular goiters. However, the new image-guided minimally invasive approaches appear safe and effective and can be used to treat symptomatic or enlarging thyroid masses.

Background: Image-guided tumor ablation is commonly performed in clinical practice. Trying to standardize terminology and data collection to enable a more reliable comparison among the different studies, in 2003, a document entitled ''Image-Guided Tumor Ablation: Proposal for Standardization of Terms and Reporting Criteria'' was published by the International Working Group on Image-Guided Tumor Ablation. Since then, ablations have evolved significantly, with the development of new technology and techniques and applications. This has included benign thyroid nodules, and their ablation has become increasingly accessible, not only among radiologists but also among other specialists involved in thyroid care, including endocrinologists and surgeons. This has resulted in further inhomogeneity in how data are presented and reported among different studies, resulting in a need for standardization to homogenize language and data reporting on the topic. Summary: In February 2018 in Milano, Italy, a meeting involving specialists concerned with minimally invasive treatments of thyroid lesions was organized, and the Italian Working Group on Minimally Invasive Treatments of the Thyroid was founded with the aim of establishing a collaborative network among all clinicians working in this field. The first work of this group is to present a proposal for standardization of terminology and reporting criteria on image-guided ablations to treat benign thyroid nodules. Conclusion: This proposal was drafted with the goal of providing guidance for standardized reporting of results in studies regarding image-guided thyroid ablations. We encourage adoption of this terminology worldwide, anticipating that this will facilitate improved communication and understanding within the field and stimulate further discussion on the topic over the next years.

Mauri (2019) Minimallyinvasive treatments for benign thyroid nodules: a Delphi-based consensus statement from the Italian minimally-invasive treatments of the thyroid (MITT) group,

LTA may be a therapeutic tool for highly selected problems in the treatment of thyroid lesions.

Nodular thyroid disease is a very common finding in\ud clinical practice, discovered by ultrasound (US) in about\ud 50 % of the general population, with higher prevalence in\ud women and in the elderly [1–4].\ud Whereas therapeutic flowchart is quite established and\ud shared for malignant lesions, multiple options are now\ud available for patients presenting with benign thyroid nod-\ud ules, ranging from simple clinical and US follow-up to\ud thyroid surgery. The majority of thyroid nodules, benign by\ud fine-needle aspiration, are asymptomatic, stable, or slow-\ud growing over time and require no treatmen

Real practice confirmed LAT as a clinically effective, reproducible, and rapid outpatient procedure. Treatments were well tolerated and risk of major complications was very low.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the safety, local effectiveness, and long-term results of laser\ud thermal ablation (LTA) in the treatment of small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).\ud MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ninety-two biopsies proved small HCCs (range,\ud 0.8–4.0 cm) in 74 patients who were treated percutaneously with LTA in an\ud outpatient clinic. A laser at a power of 5.0Wwas coupled with one to four fibers that\ud were advanced through 21-gauge needle(s) for 6–12 minutes. All lesions were\ud evaluated with computed tomography (CT) for changes in size and vascular pattern,\ud recurrence rates, and cumulative survival rates. Patients were examined for complications.\ud RESULTS: No major complications occurred in 117 LTA sessions, with an average of\ud 1.3 sessions per tumor. At 3 months, CT scans showed a nonenhancing area\ud (complete necrosis) in 89 (97%) of 92 lesions. During follow-up (range, 6–66\ud months; mean, 25.3 months), 84 tumors (91%) decreased in size. The local recurrence\ud rates (range, 1–5 years) ranged from 1.6% to 6.0%. Recurrence rates (range,\ud 12–60 months) in other liver segments ranged from 24% to 73%. Cancer-free\ud survival rates (range, 1–4 years) ranged from 73% to 24%. Overall survival rates\ud were 99%, 68%, and 15% at 1, 3, and 5 years, respectively. Twenty-one patients\ud (28%) died.\ud CONCLUSION: LTA is a safe and effective treatment for small HCC

Ultrasound-guided PLA is a feasible, safe, and effective therapy for the treatment of cervical lymph node metastases from papillary thyroid carcinoma.