Findings from single studies

This is associated with a manuscript submitted for peer review.Context: In 1996, the American Thyroid Association (ATA) released the first practice guidelines that included initial treatment for differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC), with updates in 2006 and 2009 (and 2015, published the same year as the review’s search). Since controversy exists for the initial treatment of DTC, we synthesized evidence to understand ATA guideline adherence for its initial treatment among adult patients in the United States and Canada. Evidence Acquisition: A peer reviewed search strategy for medical databases (e.g. Medline, Embase, etc.) and grey literature up to December 2016. Risk of bias domains for the included studies were assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale and its modified version. Evidence Synthesis: The review included 15 studies. Here, findings extracted from single studies included in the review are described for completion thyroidectomy, radioiodine dose and need to refer a patient. Each reported guideline concordance of approximately 70%. Conclusions: More studies are required to synthesize the evidence for these treatments or, perhaps, a systematic review specifically designed to identify studies that examined these treatments.This work was supported by a Doctoral Research Award from the Health Services and Policy Research Institute, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)