New study suggests many thyroid cancer patients can skip iodine treatment

Patients worldwide could be spared radioactive iodine treatment after thyroid cancer surgery, a new study has found. For many patients, radioactive iodine treatment after thyroid cancer surgery means side effects like nausea and time in hospital, isolated from loved ones. But new clinical trial results from researchers at UCL, The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and The Royal Marsden, mean hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide could now safely be spared this treatment. Globally, around 820,000 people are diagnosed with thyroid cancer each year. Compared to most cancers, it affects a high proportion of younger people and is also three times more common in women than men. The Iodine or Not (IoN) clinical trial, funded by Cancer Research UK and published in The Lancet, sought to determine whether patients with low-risk thyroid cancer could safely forego radioactive iodine treatment following surgery to remove the thyroid. The trial involved 504 patients aged 17-80 from 33 UK cancer centres, whose chances of their thyroid cancer returning were determined to be low. Half were randomly assigned to receive radioactive iodine treatment, which is designed to destroy any remaining cancer cells following surgery, the other half received surgery only. The patients were assessed regularly for at least five years. By the end of the study, 98% of patients who did not have radioactive iodine were still free from thyroid cancer. Dr Kate Newbold, Consultant Clinical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden and co-investigator of the study, said: “IoN is an exemplar study that shows that the UK can successfully run major practice-changing clinical trials in cancer – with impacts for patients and healthcare systems internationally.” Read the full story: https://bit.ly/3IlqTNJ