Differentiated thyroid cancer, the most common form of thyroid cancer, is one of the success stories in the war on cancer. Since the advent of radioiodine therapy, it has been considered one of the most curable cancers. On the downside, current treatment involves taking patients off their thyroid medication. This can lead to serious side effects including symptoms of hypothyroidism, an unbalanced metabolic state that can induce fatigue, depression, and other unpleasant conditions. Bart de Keizer, MD, and a team from the University Medical Center in Utrecht, The Netherlands, and Ghent University Hospital, Belgium, reported in the September issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, on a new technique that allows patients to maintain their normal course of thyroid medication prior to and during radioiodine therapy. The new technique avoids the problems of hypothyroidism, and levels of radiation in the blood and bone marrow remain well below the accepted safety thresholds during therapy.
