n recent years, the incidence of thyroid cancer has continually increased worldwide. Accurate disease staging and risk stratification have great guiding significance in the treatment decision making and postoperative management of thyroid cancer. The tumor-nodes-metastases (TNM) staging system developed by the American Joint Commission on Cancer (AJCC) has gained widespread acceptance and application at present time. The 8th edition of the AJCC TNM staging system for thyroid cancer was issued in 2016, and has been formally used in clinical practice on January 1st, 2018. Compared with the 7th edition, several amendments have been made in the 8th edition. The authors address the essential points of the updates and the evaluation effectiveness of the 8th edition respectively and, also mention the different views and attitudes of the academic society towards its overall application value, for fully evaluating the 8th edition, and thereby expecting to help the readers to gain a comprehensive understanding of this new staging system.