INTRODUCTION EXTENSIVE surgical procedures in the treatment of cancer are being continually evaluated. This is as true in regard to thyroid cancer as it is in regard to cancer of the breast, stomach, and other viscera. Opinions concerning the advisability of radical neck dissection as a treatment for thyroid carcinoma vary widely, ranging from the belief that it should never be used, to the opinion that it should be carried out in all cases when still surgically feasible, or even extended to include mediastinal dissection. Unfortunately, the opinions regarding radical neck dissection in treatment of thyroid carcinoma are often based more upon impressions than upon complete evaluation of facts. For this reason, it seemed desirable to review a series of radical neck dissections performed for thyroid cancer over a five-year period by a group of surgeons using similar methods of case selection and similar techniques of dissection. Since this review encompasses a five-year period (1949 through 1953) too recent to allow for complete or adequate follow-up studies, it is hoped that such studies can be reported when all the patients of this series have had the opportunity to survive for five years. The evaluation here is chiefly from an objective pathologic point of view, with no predetermined attempt either to justify or to condemn this particular operative procedure.