Radioiodine therapy improves relative survival rates of differentiated thyroid cancer patients: Study
Differentiated thyroid cancer patients who receive radioiodine (RAI) treatment after surgery have increased relative survival rates compared to those who do not receive the treatment. According to new research published in the April issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, the clear trend for a higher long-term survival rate is observed in subgroups of patients with low- and intermediate-risk disease, while there is special benefit in high-risk disease. These findings confirm the benefit of RAI therapy for thyroid cancer patients and provide useful information for physicians to consider when determining optimal treatment.
RAI therapy has been a thyroid cancer treatment for more than 80 years. It is commonly accepted that RAI therapy after surgery reduces recurrence rate and improves long-term survival in high-risk groups of differentiated thyroid cancer. For low- to intermediate-risk differentiated thyroid cancer, however, the evidence is sparse and partially conflicting.
“Due to this lack of evidence, whether or not radioiodine therapy is an optimal treatment course for low- to intermediate-risk patients is a matter of controversial debate. The analysis of real world data may help to guide decisions,” stated Henning Weis, MD, PhD, nuclear medicine physician in the Department of Nuclear Medicine at University Hospital of Cologne in Cologne, Germany. “In our study, we retrospectively examined relative survival-which compares how long people with a disease survive to how long people without the disease survive-of patients who did and did not receive RAI therapy.”
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