Postoperative Oral Iodine-131 Combined with Nutritional Management for the Management of Thyroid Cancer: A Meta-Analysis

Iodine nutrition plays a central role in the normal physiological function of the thyroid gland, and it is a major factor in thyroid hormone synthesis. A meta-analysis was used to measure the efficacy of oral iodine-131 combined with nutritional management in thyroid cancer patients after surgery. Computer searches were conducted on various databases, with the search time limited to January 2011 to December 2021, and the literature retrieved was limited to randomized controlled trials. Data extraction and quality evaluation were performed for the included literature, and meta-analysis was conducted by RevMan 5.3 software. A total of 9 literatures were obtained, all in English, with a sample size of 10,219 cases, containing 6,845 cases in the study group (oral iodine-131 + nutritional management) together with 3,374 cases in the control group (oral iodine-131 alone). The study group received oral administration of iodine-131 and nutritional management (low-iodine diet). The outcomes of the meta-analysis revealed that the clinical symptoms of thyroid cancer patients were improved after oral administration of iodine-131 after surgery. No statistical differences could be observed in the incidence of adverse reactions, recurrence rate, or metastasis rate of outcome indicators. To sum up, oral administration of iodine-131 combined with nutritional management has certain clinical effects in patients with thyroid cancer after surgery, but due to the limited literature included and low data quality, the conclusions of this study still need to be further verified.