Standard Treatment  Treatment is usually not curative but may produce significant palliation.
    The treatment options are similar to Stage IV papillary thyroid cancer and include therapeutic doses of radioactive iodine if the metastases take up this isotope or external radiotherapy for localized lesions that do not respond to radioactive iodine. Tumors in many patients can be suppressed with thyroid hormone. A number of investigative chemotherapy protocols are being developed for patients with metastatic disease that does not respond to these treatment programs.

Five-Year Survival  Unusual 

Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma
In the sporadic form, the tumor is usually on only one side of the thyroid. In the inherited (familial) form, the tumor is almost always on both sides. It is usually a hard mass situated in the lateral portion of the thyroid lobe at the level of the cricoid cartilage.
    Prognosis depends upon the size of the primary tumor , the involvement of nearby lymph nodes and whether the tumor can be completely removed and whether there are distant metastases.