Radioiodine Therapy Enhances Survival Rates for Thyroid Cancer Patients

Recent studies have demonstrated that patients with differentiated thyroid cancer who undergo radioiodine (RAI) therapy following surgical intervention experience significantly improved relative survival rates compared to those who do not receive this treatment. Research published in the April edition of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine indicates a discernible trend towards higher long-term survival rates among patients categorized as low- and intermediate-risk, with notable benefits observed in high-risk cases.

RAI therapy has been a staple in the treatment of thyroid cancer for over eight decades, with established consensus on its efficacy in reducing recurrence rates and enhancing long-term survival, particularly in high-risk patient groups. However, the clinical evidence supporting its use in low- to intermediate-risk patients has been limited and at times contradictory.

Dr. Henning Weis, a nuclear medicine physician at the University Hospital of Cologne, emphasized the importance of analyzing real-world data to better guide treatment decisions. His team conducted a retrospective examination of relative survival rates, comparing the longevity of patients who received RAI therapy with those who did not.

Utilizing data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program, researchers identified over 101,000 patients diagnosed with differentiated thyroid cancer. The cohort was categorized based on histological types, including classical papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), aggressive variants of PTC, follicular thyroid cancer (FTC), and minimally invasive FTC. These were further stratified into very low, low, intermediate, and high-risk groups to assess relative survival rates effectively.

The findings revealed that the relative survival rate was either higher or showed a trend towards improvement for most subgroups receiving RAI therapy compared to those who did not. In high-risk differentiated thyroid cancer patients, the relative survival benefits reached as high as 30.9%. In cases involving larger tumor sizes or lymph node involvement in classical PTC, a ten-year relative survival advantage of 1.3% to 2.0% was noted for the RAI group. Even patients categorized as low-risk with minimally invasive FTC exhibited a tendency for a higher ten-year relative survival rate by 2.0%. Importantly, RAI treatment did not adversely affect survival in any subgroup compared to those not receiving the therapy.

Dr. Matthias Schmidt, another nuclear medicine physician at the University Hospital of Cologne, highlighted that these results contribute significantly to estimating the survival benefits associated with RAI therapy in thyroid cancer patients, particularly in relation to their initial risk classification. This evidence is instrumental in supporting nuclear medicine and endocrine physicians in making informed treatment recommendations.

After dedicating nearly a decade to developing comprehensive guidelines for thyroid cancer management, the current publication serves as a critical analysis to clarify the role of radioiodine therapy.

For further reading, refer to the study titled Impact of Radioactive Iodine Treatment on Long-Term Relative Survival in Patients with Papillary and Follicular Thyroid Cancer: A SEER-Based Study Covering Histologic Subtypes and Recurrence Risk Categories, available in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.