Does radiation dose matter in thyroid cancer?: Patterns of local-regional failure in recurrent and metastatic well-differentiated thyroid cancers treated with dose-painted intensity-modulated radiation therapy.

Local-regional failure was seen most in patients who had gross disease at the time of IMRT, almost always occurred outside of the 70 Gy volume and was frequently in the area of oesophageal sparing. Meticulous surgical dissection, especially in the perioesophageal region, should be prioritised to prevent long-term LRF.