Personalized Treatment Approaches to Reduce Unnecessary High-Dose Radioactive Iodine Treatment
A study found that high-dose radioactive iodine therapy may be unnecessary in some patients with extranodal extension (ENE) in thyroid cancer. This highlights the need for a personalized approach that tailors the dosage to the patient's specific disease characteristics and overall condition.
A research team led by Professor Hyein Kim of the Department of Endocrinology at Samsung Changwon Hospital, Professor Taehyuk Kim of the Department of Endocrinology at Samsung Medical Center and Professor Junyoung Choi of the Department of Nuclear Medicine at Samsung Medical Center recently reported in the international journal Clinical Nuclear Medicine that high-dose radioactive iodine therapy significantly reduced recurrence only in a subset of high-risk thyroid cancer patients with extranodal extension.
The study followed 191 patients who underwent total thyroidectomy and compared recurrence rates over approximately 10 years, dividing them into high-dose and low-dose treatment groups. Overall, there was no significant difference in recurrence rates between the high-dose and low-dose groups. However, in high-risk patients who had a tumor size of 4 cm or more, more than five lymph node metastases, and a postoperative thyroglobulin level of 10 ng/mL or higher, high-dose treatment was associated with a lower recurrence rate.