Radionuclide therapy in the treatment of thyroid malignancy

Abstract

In this paper we presented the principles of performance of radionuclide therapy, its adverse effect, together with mentioned complications obligation to use it only according to directions and the success of the therapy, which is seen through the length of a patient's survival rate. All types of thyroid malignancies are primary cured surgically, by the total or near-total thyreoidectomy, together with lymph node dissection of the neck and with a long-term suppressive- therapy or only substitutive L-thyroxin therapy. Radionuclide therapy is used only for the types of thyroid malignancies where a radionuclide was detected, beta emitter which is distinguished by its selective entering into the primary tumor and metastatic tissue. This therapy is used for patients with differentiated papillary and follicular thyroid carcinoma (DTC) and patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC). By the means of 131-I we additionally cure patients with DTC, by MIBG-131-I we treat patients with MTC, but we also try to cure this malignancy by the specific monoclonal antibodies, marked by 131-I or 90-Y, which is still a part of clinical trial studies. It is very likely that the radioimmune therapy will be the means of cure for malignant thyroid lymphoma (MLT), since this therapy is successful in healing the lymphomas in other locations.

Keywords

• thyroid neoplasms
• radiotherapy
• carcinoma
• papillary
• follicular
• carcinoma
• medullary
• radioimmunotherapy
• iodine radioisotopes
• survival rate