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Postoperative Treatment of Thyroid Cancer with Radioactive Iodine¹

Los Angeles

ABSTRACT

1. This report reviews the experience of the Radioisotope Service, Veterans Administration Center, Los Angeles, California, in the postoperative treatment of thyroid cancer with radioactive iodine since 1949. Forty-five patients have received therapeutic amounts of I¹³¹ and have been followed for more than one year.
   
2. Cancer metastases were localized by means of the mechanical scintiscanner after patients had received large tracer doses of I¹³¹ preceded by injections of thyrotropic hormone.
   
3. A consistent therapeutic regimen was followed involving four basic modalities of therapy: surgical thyroidectomy, thyrotropic hormone stimulation, cancerocidal doses of I¹³¹ and thyroid extract administration.
   
4. Twenty-nine patients in this series had proved metastatic lesions; 11 are dead, 18 are living, and 41 per cent have lived 5 or more years. All patients who were free of metastases after initial thyroid surgery are alive.
   
5. No complications from I¹³¹ therapy were observed. This is attributed to the conservative dosage regimen employed.
   
6. The results of the use of I¹³¹ in the postoperative treatment of thyroid cancer in other reported series have been reviewed.
   

FOOTNOTES

¹ Radioisotope Service, Veterans Administration Center, Los Angeles, and Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles.