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Systemic therapy
Radioiodine (I-131) therapy
A drink or capsule that thyroid cancer cells absorb and other tissues largely ignore.
Delivered at a partner unit
What it is
Differentiated thyroid cancer cells take up iodine. Radioactive iodine given after thyroid surgery is concentrated by any remaining thyroid tissue or disease and destroys it from within, one of oncology's cleanest examples of targeted delivery.
Not everyone with thyroid cancer needs it. Low-risk disease after complete surgery frequently does not, and giving it anyway is a common over-treatment.
When it is used
- After surgery for intermediate or high-risk differentiated thyroid cancer
- Known residual or metastatic iodine-avid disease
- For diagnostic whole-body scanning in follow-up
How the decision is made
- Whether your risk category actually needs it, this is where most of the over-treatment happens.
- Dose, and whether low-dose ablation is sufficient for you.
- Preparation: thyroid hormone withdrawal or recombinant TSH, and the low-iodine diet before it.
Decided here; administered at a licensed nuclear medicine partner with isolation facilities.
Who does what
What we handle, and what happens elsewhere
KPCIRC handles
- Risk stratification and a written recommendation for or against
- Pre-treatment preparation planning and diet counselling
- Thyroglobulin and scan follow-up interpretation
- Long-term suppression management
Performed and billed elsewhere
- The radioiodine dose and isolation admission
- Whole-body scanning
- You will be radioactive for a short period and must follow distancing rules, particularly around children and pregnancy. Dry mouth and taste change are common.
Questions to ask your own doctor
Take these with you. They work whether or not you are treated here.
- Do I actually need radioiodine, given my risk category?
- What dose, and why that dose?
- How long will I be isolated?
- What are the rules when I get home?
Support that goes with it
Where this is used
Cancers this commonly forms part of
Not sure this is the right option for you?
That is exactly what a second opinion is for. Bring what you have, we will tell you what is missing and what the alternatives actually are, in writing.