A Systematic Review of Adjuvant Interventions for Radioiodine in Patients with Thyroid Cancer.

AIMS The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of adjuvant interventions for radioiodine in patients with thyroid cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS A systematic search was undertaken on July 9, 2014. RevMan 5 software was used to synthesize data. RESULTS 13 randomized controlled trials were included. The pooled risk ratio of 0.99 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.96-1.02, p = 0.58) indicated no significant difference in successful thyroid remnant ablation between recombinant human thyroid-stimulating hormone (rhTSH) and thyroid hormone withdrawal in 7 trials. The percentage of patients who had successful ablation was significantly higher in the oral-lithium group than in the control group (p = 0.017). A computerized decision aid improves informed decision-making in patients with early-stage papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) who are considering adjuvant radioiodine treatment (p < 0.001). Amifostine pretreatment did not prevent parenchymal damage to the major salivary gland function after radioiodine treatment (p = 0.2461). CONCLUSIONS The present systematic review suggests that rhTSH, lithium, and computerized decision aids maybe act as beneficial adjuvant interventions for radioiodine in patients with thyroid cancer; however, amifostine does not exhibit helpful effects in thyroid cancer patients treated with radioiodine.