Abstract
The biological elimination of therapeutic131I in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC), post total or near-total thyroidectomy, was compared after withholding levothyroxine suppression against administration of recombinant human thyrotropin without stopping levothyroxine. In 163 patients (group G1) levothyroxine was withheld before131I therapy: in 138 patients the tumor was limited to the thyroid bed (group G1.1) and in 25 patients metastases were present (group G1.2). A second group of patients (G2; n = 28) received131I therapy after administration of recombinant human thyrotropin without stopping levothyroxine. Mean retained131I activity (as a percentage of the administered dose) was 5%-29% (group G1.1), 20%-43% (group G1.2) and 1 %-17% (group G2). The effective half-life of131I was 0.59-0.69 days (group G1.1), 0.87-1.22 days (group G1.2) and 0.38-0.44 days (group G2). In conclusion, the use of recombinant human thyrotropin to prepare patients with thyroid cancer for therapy with131I shortens its effective half-life and reduces its retained activity compared to preparation with discontinuation of levothyroxine suppression.
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Papadimitriou, D., Kottou, S., Oros, L. et al. Differentiated thyroid cancer: comparison of therapeutic iodine 131 biological elimination after discontinuation of levothyroxine versus administration of recombinant human thyrotropin. Ann Nucl Med 20, 63–67 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02985593
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02985593