Objective To investigate the surgical treatment and prognostic factors in elderly patients with thyroid cancer.Methods The surgical treatment and prognostic factors of 96 patients over the age of 60 years with thyroid cancer were analyzed retrospectively in our hospital from January 2001 to December 2010.The Kaplan-Meier method was applied to analyze survival rates,Log-rank test was used in the univariate analysis and multivariate Cox model was applied for the independent prognostic factors analysis.Results The 5 year survival for elderly patients was 73.6％ and median survival time was 68 months.Univariate analysis indicated that sex,age,lymph node metastases,distant metastasis,clinical stage,extent of tumor invasion and modified cervical lymph node dissection were prognostic factors (all P＜0.05).Multivariate analysis showed that age,clinical stage,extent of tumor invasion and distant metastasis were independent prognostic factors(P＜0.05).Conclusions The elderly patients with thyroid cancer are in poor prognosis.Age,clinical stage,extent of tumor invasion and distant metastasis are independent important prognostic factors.Individualized surgical treatment should be made on the basis of correct assessment of prognosis.