Radioiodine therapy in differentiated thyroid cancer: a nuclear medicine perspective.

摘要

The first reports of radionuclide therapy for thyroid disease used 130I, but 131I rapidly became the favoured radionuclide with beta- and gamma-ray emissions and a half-life suitable for therapy [1]. Although thyrotoxicosis was the initial indication for 131I therapy, reports on its use in the treatment of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) soon followed.Surprisingly, given the length of time for which 131I has been used, significant controversy persists about which patients will benefit from radioiodoine treatment and what doses of radioiodine should be used. It is only in recent years that prospective studies have been initiated to clarify some of the unanswered questions in radioiodine treatment. Many of the changes in the management of thyroid cancer that have taken place recently are related to the use of radioiodine for both diagnostic imaging and therapy.