Iodine-131 treatment strategy in papillary and follicular thyroid cancers at Centre Antoine Lacassagne (Nice)

We report on iodine-131 treatment strategy in 1207 papillary and 250 follicular thyroid cancers admitted at our institution between 1976 and 2001. At the time of diagnosis, 51 patients (3.5%) had already metastases. The rest were 155 (11 %) pT4, 619 (44.6 %) pT1 588 (42,6 %) pT2, 26 pT3, 5 pT0 and 4 pTx. All patients underwent quasi-total thyroidectomy. Lymph node dissection was performed in most patients except in 49.7 %n of pT1 and 33% of pT2. Lastly, multifocal thyroid lesions were found in 28.5% of pT1 and 27,6 % of pT2. 80 patients did not receive radio-iodine (among them 60 were pT1 pN0 or pNx). 1114 patients received one therapeutic dose of 3.7 GBq of 131-iodine 6 to 8 weeks post surgery. 181 patients were treated twice (89 for remnants and 92 for disease progression). 82 patients received at least 3 doses and 5 up to 7 doses. 116 deaths were recorded, 59 (4 %) were related to thyroid cancer. The relatively poor prognosis of the follicular form is confirmed with 15.2 % deaths. This study needs to be further analysed focusing oil the follow-up of pT1 patients in order to redefine the indications of iodine therapy in that group. (author)