Skip to main content

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Thyroid Endocrinology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2024.1474121

Medium-and Long-term Recurrence After Radioiodine Therapy for Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma with Recombinant Human Thyrotropin: A Meta-Analysis

Provisionally accepted
Zhongliang Wu Zhongliang Wu 1*Qixian Yao Qixian Yao 2Lili Song Lili Song 3Jun Xu Jun Xu 1
  • 1 Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China
  • 2 Community Health Service Center of Suzhou Science & Technology Town, Suzhou, China
  • 3 The People’s Hospital of Suzhou New District, Suzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Radioactive iodine (RAI) is widely used in the management of differentiated thyroid cancers (DTCs). Despite its widespread recommendation in clinical guidelines, details on its long-term efficacy and the risk of tumor recurrence are still unclear. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to compare the medium-and long-term recurrence rate after treatment with recombinant human thyrotropin (rhTSH) versus thyroid hormone withdrawal (THW) in patients with DTC. A systematic search was conducted for articles that compared medium-and long-term outcomes (>2 years) based on treatment approach with either rhTSH or THW. Ten studies, including six randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and four retrospective studies that recruited 2,833 patients, met the inclusion criteria. There was no difference in medium-and long-term recurrence rates between the group of patients that received rhTSH and those that received THW. This finding was consistent in subgroup analyses that included only RCTs or retrospective studies. We also found that the structural incomplete response (SIR) rate was marginally higher in the rhTSH group. However, a subgroup analysis of RCTs only found no significant difference in the SIR between the two groups. rhTSH is comparable with THW in terms of successful ablation of residual disease and low recurrence rates. Further RCTs are needed to explore if rhTSH can increase the risk of SIR.

    Keywords: Recombinant human thyroid stimulating hormone, Differentiated thyroid carcinoma, long-term recurrence, thyroid hormone withdrawal, Radioactive iodine

    Received: 01 Aug 2024; Accepted: 03 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wu, Yao, Song and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Zhongliang Wu, Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.