Some of these replies are retarded. Standard disclaimer applies. This is my opinion, NOT medical advice. Consult your doctor. By not aggressive, I assume you mean papillary carcinoma. If you have follicular carcinoma (worse than papillary carcinoma) or follicular lesion of undetermined significance (STATISTICALLY less worse than papillary w a chance of being completely benign), the following does not apply. Typically, in USA, papillary carcinoma was treated with TOTAL thyroidectomy and radioiodine to poison any remaining thyroid tissue. Based on practices in other countries, Japan is a great example, some have realized the USA approach is complete overkill. I have heard of small (<1cm) papillary carcinomas simply being watched for growth (no surgery) in Japan with only rare instances of spreading. Now there are many factors about your case I don't know (and don't want to know as I am not giving medical advice), but a more aggressive approach is warranted if you are young (you have more life-years at risk) or the tumor is large. If you are in the USA and have papillary carcinoma, I think your doc is smart to suggest only partial thyroidectomy; most in our retarded over-treatment happy system would recommend total thyroidectomy. If I were giving medical advice (i'm not), I would suggest finding a surgeon that does a lot of thyroids. If you are in a big city, you may be able to find a guy that does ONLY thyroids.