Radioiodine therapy in differentiated thyroid cancer in the male population

Abstract

Differentiated thyroid cancers are typically iodine-avid and can be effectively treated with radioiodine. In most patients, radioiodine treatment is done for ablation of residual tissue. Differentiated thyroid carcinoma is usually asymptomatic, and frequently appears as a solitary thyroid nodule but few show cervical lymphadenopathy or metastasis. The main purpose of this work is to study the characteristics of differentiated thyroid cancer in the male population and to compare our results with literature. A prospective study covering a period of 14 months, from January 2023 to March 2024, concerned 14 male patients presenting differentiated cancer of the thyroid gland. They received Iratherapy treatment. This study was conducted in Nuclear Medicine department in Cheikh Khalifa University Hospital, Casablanca, Morocco. A total of 14 male patients presenting differentiated thyroid carcinoma were identified and hospitalized. The average age of our patients was 50.78 years. In total, 35.71% of our patients presented vesicular variant of papillary carcinoma on anatomopathological examination; 42.85% of our population had a capsular effraction while 28.57% had vascular emboli. The check-up carried out one week before hospitalization showed (average levels): TSH at 59,96 microUI/mL; Thyroglobulin at 246,10 ng/mL They received a median of 100 mCi of 131I. Post-iratherapy full-body scan identified a single cervical lesion in 50% of cases and multiple cervical lesions in the rest of the cases. Two patients presented metastasis. Research has showed that thyroid cancer occurs two to three times more often in women than men with a peak age at diagnosis of about 50 to 54 years of age in women and 65 to 69 years of age in men which was not the case of most of our patients. Fernandes et al reported that thyroid carcinoma occurs more often in women with mortality rates higher for men probably at the time of diagnosis. Unfortunately, the literature is not robust in the description of this treatment in male population. Certainly, larger cohorts and longer follow up are needed to assess the long term efficacy and to allow a better understanding of the prognostic factors of the disease.