Sathish S. Thermal field management in thyroid ablation for papillary thyroid carcinoma: Advancing precision and patient-centered care. World J Radiol 2025; 17(12): 114211 [DOI: 10.4329/wjr.v17.i12.114211]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Sivan Sathish, Head, Professor, Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Teerthanker Mahaveer Dental College and Research Centre, Teerthanker Mahaveer University, Delhi Road, Moradabad 244001, Uttar Pradesh, India. sivansathishmfds@yahoo.co.in
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Surgery
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Editorial
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This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Dec 28, 2025 (publication date) through Dec 29, 2025
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World Journal of Radiology
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1949-8470
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Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA
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Sathish S. Thermal field management in thyroid ablation for papillary thyroid carcinoma: Advancing precision and patient-centered care. World J Radiol 2025; 17(12): 114211 [DOI: 10.4329/wjr.v17.i12.114211]
World J Radiol. Dec 28, 2025; 17(12): 114211 Published online Dec 28, 2025. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v17.i12.114211
Thermal field management in thyroid ablation for papillary thyroid carcinoma: Advancing precision and patient-centered care
Sivan Sathish
Sivan Sathish, Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Teerthanker Mahaveer Dental College and Research Centre, Teerthanker Mahaveer University, Moradabad 244001, Uttar Pradesh, India
Author contributions: Sathish S conceptualized and designed the editorial, reviewed relevant literature, and was responsible for writing and critically revising the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sivan Sathish, Head, Professor, Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Teerthanker Mahaveer Dental College and Research Centre, Teerthanker Mahaveer University, Delhi Road, Moradabad 244001, Uttar Pradesh, India. sivansathishmfds@yahoo.co.in
Received: September 15, 2025 Revised: October 22, 2025 Accepted: December 3, 2025 Published online: December 28, 2025 Processing time: 103 Days and 21.8 Hours
Abstract
Thermal ablation has become an established minimally invasive alternative to surgery for papillary thyroid carcinoma, particularly in low-risk patients seeking effective treatment with reduced morbidity. While clinical outcomes are favorable, wide variability in complication rates and patient-reported experiences persists across centers and operators, emphasizing the need for strategies that standardize safety and enhance quality of life. Cai et al now introduce thermal field management (TFM), a thoughtful approach that reframes thermal ablation from a purely technical procedure into a precision-guided, patient-centered intervention. By deliberately confining the ablation zone to protect surrounding tissues, TFM addresses complications such as voice change and pain, issues often overlooked in the pursuit of technical success. Their findings, showing reduced complications and improved patient comfort, highlight the value of integrating patient-reported outcomes into routine ablation practice. This places TFM within the broader trajectory of interventional oncology, where precision and patient-centeredness are becoming central goals. If validated in multicenter prospective studies, TFM could extend beyond thyroid cancer and inform the evolution of safer, standardized ablative therapies across multiple organ systems.
Core Tip: Thermal field management offers a new way to perform thyroid ablation by focusing on how heat spreads within the tissue rather than just removing the nodule. It combines two key ideas of actively adjusting the ablation power and position to control heat, and passively protecting nearby structures using methods such as hydrodissection and careful preservation of tissue layers. This approach aims to treat the disease effectively while reducing the chance of voice changes, pain, or discomfort. Thermal field management shifts attention from technical success alone to overall safety and comfort, making ablation a more precise and patient-centered procedure.
