Patient-specific dosimetry for radioiodine treatment of differentiated thyroid cancer

Adjuvant therapy of differentiated thyroid cancer with radioactive iodine is a standard procedure for the ablation of remnant thyroid tissue following surgery and for the treatment of iodine avid metastases. In most cases fixed activities are administered. Presently there are two dosimetric approaches for the treatment of thyroid cancer using radioiodine: (a) the 2 Gy bone marrow dose limited approach and (b) the optimization of the absorbed dose to iodine avid lesions. Both concepts and their clinical applications and, in addition, new dosimetric methods which include radiobiological considerations are described. (orig.)