Effectiveness of Preoperative Radioactive Iodine ( 131 I) Therapy for Locally Advanced Papillary Thyroid Cancer: A Case Report

We report here the effectiveness of preoperative radioactive iodine-131 (¹³¹I) therapy for locally advanced thyroid cancer. A 57-year-old woman demonstrated a hard neck tumor that markedly invaded the surrounding organs. The cytological diagnosis of the tumor using fine-needle aspiration biopsy was papillary carcinoma. Because curative resection of the tumor appeared difficult at her first visit, ¹³¹I therapy was performed prior to surgery and was more useful than expected. After 3 ¹³¹I treatments, the tumor size was greatly reduced, and the patient underwent a curative operation. Histopathological diagnosis was well differentiated papillary carcinoma, pT4 and pNlb. The postoperative clinical course was uneventful. There have been no definitive reports using ¹³¹I as preoperative treatment for inoperable thyroid cancer. We suggest that ¹³¹I therapy may also be beneficial as neoadjuvant therapy for locally advanced thyroid carcinoma.