Challenges and current views on dosing of radioactive iodine in the treatment of benign thyroid disease

Abstract

Radioactive iodine represents the significant therapeutic option in the treatment of benign thyroid disease. Despite a decades-long experience and a large number of treated patients, many issues related to the therapy with radioactive iodine are still under discussion, including the method of therapeutic dose determination and the factors that affect the therapy outcome. Clinical practice, as well as recommendations of the relevant guidelines in terms of the dosing of radioactive iodine, vary widely in the world: from the fixed dose application to the complex dosimetric protocols. A greater presence of dosimetric approach would facilitate the establishment of dose-effect correlation and the study of influence of various factors on the therapy outcome. Development of the new dosing protocols, as well as new insights into factors that affect therapeutic outcome, enable further improvement of both efficacy and safety of the radioactive iodine therapy for an individual patient.

Keywords

• fixed dose
• dosimetry
• biokinetics
• variability factors