Radioiodine Uptake in Thyroid Carcinomata

Abstract

When patients with thyroid carcinomata are being treated by means of radioiodine, it is sometimes obvious that the treatment either is without effect on the disease or is clearly effective in reducing tumour mass. In most cases, however, we need criteria of the behaviour or response of the tumour following successive doses of radioiodine in order to plan the size and intervals of these doses in such a way that, if possible, all iodine-concentrating tumour tissue in the body is progressively destroyed. There is at present no accepted criterion for deciding how frequently such doses should be given. Moreover, any suggestions must be tentative, as very few patients have been treated in this way for longer than ten years (Keston, Ball, Frantz, and Palmer, 1942; Seidlin, Marinelli and Oshry, 1946) and we have only six so treated for over three years. It is not yet possible, therefore, to assess different regimes of treatment in terms of “cure” or survival, nor would such information ever give adequate guidance on how to plan the radioiodine dosage of the individual case. We wish to describe certain measurements which may prove useful in the planning or control of radioiodine therapy, although their value can only finally be assessed on the results of their use in treatment.