Patients with high-risk differentiated thyroid cancer have a lower I-131 ablation success rate than low-risk ones in spite of a high ablation activity

J. Winter, M. Winter, T. Krohn, A. Heinzel, F. F. Behrendt, R. M. Tuttle, F. M. Mottaghy, Frederik A. Verburg*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Objective To examine success rates in strictly defined high-risk differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) patients who received a high-activity (5550 MBq) adjuvant postoperative I-131 therapy and compare these to the rates found in highest risk and low-risk patients. DesignRetrospective database study. PatientsWe examined 377 patients with DTC who received I-131 ablation. Patients with distant metastases were classified as very high risk. Patients with primary tumours >4 cm, extensive extrathyroidal invasion (pT4a or pT4b in accordance with the 7th edition of the TNM system), and patients with 5 lymph node metastases or any lateral compartment lymph node metastases were considered high risk. All other patients were considered low risk. MeasurementsAblation success rate at first TSH-stimulated follow-up. ResultsThe ablation success rate was 726% in low-risk patients, 517% in high-risk patients and 138% in highest risk patients (all differences P <0001). In none of the groups, a significant difference in the initial I-131 activity was found between patients with successful and unsuccessful ablation (low risk: P = 016, high risk: P = 091 and highest risk: P = 048). Furthermore, there was no difference in ablation success between patients who received
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)926-931
JournalClinical Endocrinology
Volume85
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2016

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