Thyroid pathology and cytopathology 2014: Bethesda System in thyroid cytopathology: its pros and cons

Abstract

Since the publishing of The Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology (TBSRTC) in 2008, many countries have adopted the system and the results have been reported. In Korea, TBSRTC has been used officially since 2010 and the results are being reported. In this short course, I plan to discuss the systems pros and cons based on our experience. The pros are that the system issues recommendation for treatment or follow-up and malignant ratio for each category, and that the system uses uniform terminology which offers easy and accurate communication and enhances reliable sharing of data. The cons are that because the issued malignant ratio is not a real data and it is actually different in every institution, the offered recommendation needs to be accommodated.