Radioactive iodine in the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid cancer

Abstract

R used for more than 20 years in the study and treatment of patients with thyroid disease. However, it has heen only since 1946, when supplies of 1x31 became available from nuclear reactors, that the material has come into relatively common use in medical research, diagnosis, and treatment. Fifteen years is too short a period of time in which to achieve a full and compltste evaluation of such a therapeutic tool. This is especially true of the application of 1131 in the treatment of patients with cancer of the thyroid gland. Thyroid cancer (apart from the anaplastic types) is well known for its unpredictable course, with long-term survival, measured in decades, not uncommon even when there has been inadequate treatmc. wt or no treatment at a11.26,*9 Indeed, a small number of cases respond well to no treatment other than thyroid hormone alone, with arrest or regression of metastases.2. 8, 28 These factors have in large part led to the continuing wide divergence of opinion concerning what constitutes appropriate surgical management.