OnCo
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Radioiodine therapy and whole-body iodine scanning

Using the thyroid's natural appetite for iodine to image and treat thyroid cancer with a radioactive form of it. The oldest theranostic, and now used more selectively than it was.

I-123 or low-activity I-131 scans map iodine-avid tissue; therapeutic I-131 ablates remnants or treats metastases. Randomised trials (HiLo, ESTIMABL1/2, IoN) have progressively reduced activity and then removed ablation for low-risk disease. Refractory disease (no uptake, or progression despite uptake) defines the population for kinase inhibitors; redifferentiation with MEK/BRAF inhibitors can restore uptake in selected patients.

Generic schematic · not to scale · placeholder for the radiopharma front
Receptor (PSMA / SSTR) · Ligand + Lu-177 · β⁻ track ~2 mm, crossfire

How it works

Thyroid cells take up iodine through the sodium-iodide symporter after TSH stimulation; the beta emission treats, the gamma emission images.

Strengths
  • Highly selective without any engineered targeting
  • Cheap, oral, curative in iodine-avid metastatic disease
Limitations
  • Dedifferentiated tumours lose uptake
  • Salivary toxicity; radiation precautions; second cancers at high cumulative activity
Since
1946

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Latest papers · live from Europe PMC
Open in Europe PMC

Query for this technology: (TITLE:"Radioiodine therapy and whole-body iodine scanning" OR ABSTRACT:"Radioiodine therapy and whole-body iodine scanning") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about Radioiodine therapy and whole-body iodine scanning, not a curated reading list.

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