Most thyroid cancers are well-differentiated cancers and have a very good prognosis. About 10% of thyroid cancer, however, invades the surrounding tissues, causing local recurrence and distant metastasis, and eventually affecting survival rate. In locally advanced thyroid cancers, the invasion of trachea, larynx and esophagus, can be occurred by primary tumor and may also result in lymph nodes metastasis. Surgical resection is still mainstay for the treatment of locally advanced thyroid cancer. The main purpose of the surgical resection is to eliminate the cancer completely, therefore, it can cause many complications such as dysfunction of the larynx, trachea and esophagus. It can have a serious effect on the quality of life, therefore there is still controversy on the extent of the surgery. The authors compare and analyze the opinions which were already discussed in the literatures published so far. These will help to select the surgical method.