ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

The Quarterly Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging 2019 March;63(1):68-75

DOI: 10.23736/S1824-4785.16.02839-9

Copyright © 2016 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Evaluation of ablation of thyroid remnants with 1850 MBq iodine-131 in 67 patients with thyroid cancer

Joji KAWABE ¹ ✉, Shigeaki HIGASHIYAMA ¹, Kohei KOTANI ¹, Atsushi YOSHIDA ¹, Naoyoshi ONODA ², Susumu SHIOMI ¹

¹ Department of Nuclear Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan; ² Department of Surgical Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan

BACKGROUND: Radioiodine remnant ablation (RRA) is used to destroy residual normal thyroid tissue after total thyroidectomy in differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) patients. As 1850-MBq RRA is routinely performed at our facility, we evaluated the outcomes.
METHODS: Sixty-seven DTC patients without macroscopic residual lesions after total thyroidectomy were evaluated. Thyroglobulin (Tg) was measured 2-3 months before RRA with thyroxin administration (pretreatment); just before ablation after a 3-week iodine intake restriction with thyroxin withdrawal (THW) (N.=16) or recombinant human thyroid-stimulating hormone (rhTSH) stimulation (N.=51); and 3 months after RRA, after a 2-week iodine intake restriction and 3-week THW (N.=57) or rhTSH stimulation (N.=10). All patients received 131I (1850 MBq) treatment followed by 131I scintigraphy about 8 days later (8.18±0.91) and 131I scintigraphy (185 MBq) after the dosage 24 hours later 3months after RRA. Initial RRA goal was defined as negatively visible uptake in 131I thyroid bed (VUT) and a Tg level of <2 ng/mL 3 months after RRA.
RESULTS: Rest 60 patients whose TSH levels were below 0.5 µIU/mL of all 67 patients were evaluated. Negatively VUT on 3 months after RRA was shown in 56 out of 60 patients (93.3%). Initial RRA goal was achieved in 21 (42.0%) of 50 patients, excluding 3 patients whose Tg levels 3 months after RRA were not measured and 7 patients with anti-Tg antibodies. Pretreatment Tg levels (P=0.0003) was significant predictive factor for Initial RRA goal on multivariate logistic regression analysis.
CONCLUSIONS: RRA with 1850 MBq is effective by visual diagnosis, about 40% of all intermediate or high-risk DTC patients achieved initial RRA goals by both visual and Tg levels diagnosis.

KEY WORDS: Iodine-131 - Ablation techniques - Thyroidectomy - Thyroid neoplasms - Risk assessment