Professor Akira Miyauchi: the treatment of low-risk thyroid cancer

Professor Akira Miyauchi (Figure 1) is President and COO of Kuma Hospital, Center of Excellence in Thyroid Care, Kobe, Japan. He is a Japanese endocrine surgeon, who is specialized in thyroid and parathyroid diseases. As the associate professor of the Department of Surgery, Kagawa Medical University, he proposed and initiated a clinical trial of active surveillance for low-risk papillary micro cancer in collaboration with Kuma Hospital in 1993. In 2001, he was appointed the President of Kuma Hospital. Since then, he has been keen on the study of evaluating treatments for papillary micro cancer, observation versus surgery. He is a visiting Professor of Surgery, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan, and University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia. He is also serving as Chairman of the Asian Association of Endocrine Surgeons.