Brain metastasis from differentiated thyroid carcinoma responding to radioiodine therapy

Brain metastasis (BM) occurs only in about ۱% of differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) cases. Although DTC generally has a good prognosis, once BM develops, the mortality rate significantly increases up to ۷۸%. BM is usually treated by surgical resection or external radiotherapy, whereas radioactive iodine therapy (RAIT) using I-۱۳۱ is much less often chosen because BM often shows poor uptake of I-۱۳۱. In addition, even in case I-۱۳۱ accumulates in the BM, RAIT could cause adverse effects such as brain hemorrhage and cerebral edema. We present a case of BM from DTC that showed response to I-۱۳۱ therapy with no severe adverse effects. The brain lesion was very small and asymptomatic, and was only found after a post-therapy I-۱۳۱ scintigraphy. There are a few case reports where BM was cured by RAIT with little to no side effects. We theorize that BM that is small in size, asymptomatic and show I-۱۳۱ accumulation could be successfully treated with RAIT.

کلیدواژه ها:

Thyroid cancer ، Radioiodine ، Brain metastasis