PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Matthias Schmidt
AU  - Rainer Görges
AU  - Alexander Drzezga
AU  - Markus Dietlein
TI  - A Matter of Controversy: Is Radioiodine Therapy Favorable in Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma?
AID  - 10.2967/jnumed.117.191338
DP  - 2018 Aug 01
TA  - Journal of Nuclear Medicine
PG  - 1195--1201
VI  - 59
IP  - 8
4099  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/59/8/1195.short
4100  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/59/8/1195.full
SO  - J Nucl Med2018 Aug 01; 59
AB  - Radioiodine therapy is a matter of controversy because different opinions exist about its use for differentiated thyroid carcinoma. The following article sheds light on the different opinions and explains why we advocate the use of radioiodine therapy in more than only high-risk patients. In comparison to other malignancies, differentiated thyroid carcinoma has a different tumor biology due to its usually slow growth pattern. Radioiodine therapy was first used about 75 y ago and provided cure at a time when prospective randomized controlled trials had yet to be developed. Large patient cohorts and usually at least a decade of clinical follow-up are needed to demonstrate a benefit from radioiodine therapy. Thus, especially in low-risk patients, many factors define an individual treatment decision, including tumor stage, extent of surgery, tumor biology, clinical and imaging data, life expectancy, and patient preferences.