Masud Haq

Thyroid cancer: an overview

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Rare Thyroid Cancers

cancer in general is due to the preponderance of well-differentiated carcinoma, a subset of rare thyroid tumors exist that exhibit aggressive behavior and poor prognosis. These require careful consideration and different treatment paradigms to optimize clinical outcome. Extremely rare types of thyroid cancer include thymus-like tumors, mucoepidermoid carcinoma, spindle cell tumor, mixed medullary follicular cancers, and teratoma. In view of the limited literature on their management these extremely rare types are not covered in this chapter.

Erratum to: Thyroid cancer causing obstruction of the great veins in the neck

Background and aims: To report our experience and review the literature of thyroid cancer obstructing the great veins in the neck, highlighting clinical aspects and response to treatment.

Whole-body and blood dosimetry for radioiodine treatment of differentiated thyroid cancer

IntroductionIdeally, the administration of radioiodine (RAI) therapy for the treatment of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) would be carried out on a patient-specific basis. This requires individual dosimetry calculations. AimTo calculate whole-body absorbed doses (WBD) and blood doses (BD) resulting from different levels of administration, to determine whether a correlation exists between the levels of administered activity and these toxicity criteria. MethodsEighty-two patients underwent 110 treatments. Serial whole-body activity measurements were taken following administration of 3, 5.5 and 9 GBq RAI. Blood samples were taken at 48, 72 and 144 h for similar evaluations. WBD and BD were calculated using standard MIRD methodology with interpolated S values. ResultsWBD and BD values are expressed as mean±SD Gy. After 3 GBq, WBD=0.18±0.04, BD=0.31±0.08; after 5.5 GBq, WBD=0.34±0.14, BD=0.64±0.38; and after 9 GBq, WBD=0.66±0.39, BD=0.94±0.44. Whilst higher administered activities resulted in higher absorbed whole-body and blood doses, no adverse haematological toxicity was observed throughout the study. ConclusionThe determination of absorbed whole-body and blood doses can be used as a guide to the safe prescription of administered activity up to 9 GBq. These methods can help predict and minimize potential toxicity.