A Systematic Review of Absorbed Doses and Response in Patients Treated with Radioiodine for Differentiated Thyroid Cancer
Abstract
Background: Treatment of patients with thyroid cancer with Na[131I]I is routinely performed with empirical activity levels. Treatment success may be expected to correlate with the absorbed doses delivered to targets (thyroid remnants or metastatic lesions), but no systematic review or meta-analysis of absorbed dose-effect relationships has yet been performed.
Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis of reports published before August 22, 2025, was performed using PubMed, Web of Science, and OVID MEDLINE. Studies were included if they reported the proportion of patients achieving successful outcome as defined in individual publications and the absorbed doses delivered to targets. The study is registered with PROSPERO (CRD42024554956).
Results: In total, 3723 studies were identified of which 18 were eligible for analysis. Number of patients in the included studies ranged from 4 to 509. For patients treated with Na[131I]I for thyroid remnant ablation, the reported success rates ranged from 60% to 100%, while lower success rates of 43-58% were found for patients with metastatic lesions. Success rates for patients with a thyroid remnant absorbed dose of 300 Gy or more ranged from 78% to 96%, while patients with metastatic lesions receiving at least 80 Gy had success rates ranging from 46% to 98%.
Conclusions: While individual studies have demonstrated the importance of absorbed doses from Na[131I]I for differentiated thyroid cancer, no conclusive absorbed dose-effect…
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a meta-analysis, done in people. Its evidence level is 1 of 5 (Highest · pooled evidence). Pooled evidence from several studies sits at the top of the evidence pyramid.
Read the paper
Related studies
- Preliminary Toxicity Analysis of 3DCRT versus IMRT on the High Dose Arm of the RTOG 0126 Prostate Cancer Trial
- Adaptive Radiotherapy for Head and Neck Cancer: Initial Clinical Outcomes from a Prospective Trial
- American Association of Physicists in Medicine Task Group 263: Standardizing Nomenclatures in Radiation Oncology
- Motion Management Strategies and Technical Issues Associated with Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy of Thoracic and Upper Abdominal Tumors: A Review from NRG Oncology
- High-dose-rate interstitial brachytherapy as a monotherapy for localized prostate cancer: treatment description and preliminary results of a phase I/II clinical trial
- Highly efficient training, refinement, and validation of a knowledge-based plan quality control system for radiotherapy clinical trials
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.