Clinical Value of 131I in Diagnosis and Treatment of Recurrent Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma

Abstract

The papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) patients have general good prognosis, but the relapse occurred in 20%-30% patients after initial treatment, which resulted in poor prognosis and treatment difficulty. 131I can act as a part of postoperative adjuvant therapy for the initial standard treatment of middle- or high-risk PTC patients, and it still could play important roles in the diagnosis and treatment of recurrent PTC. 131I can contribute to early detection, accurate location and iodine uptake evaluation of recurrence foci and is helpful for the subsequent treatment scheme. 131I can serve as a part of radical treatment for small recurrent foci, postoperative adjuvant treatment for resectable lesions and palliative treatment for unresectable ones. This paper reviews the value of 131I treatment as the adjuvant therapy followed by reoperation in recurrent PTC.

Keywords

• papillary thyroid cancer
• relapse
• 131i