No difference in the outcome of metastatic thyroid cancer patients when using recombinant or endogenous TSH.

OBJECTIVE: At present, recombinant TSH cannot be used for the treatment of metastatic differentiated thyroid cancer patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate if the type of TSH stimulation, recombinant or endogenous, had an impact on the outcome of these patients. DESIGN AND METHODS: We compared the outcome of two propensity score-matched groups of metastatic patients, stimulated by either only recombinant TSH (n = 43) or only endogenous TSH (n = 34). RESULTS: As expected from the matching procedure, the clinical-pathological features and the cumulative 131-I activities administered to the two groups were very similar. After 4 years of follow-up, 4% of patients were cured, 3% had biochemical disease and 93% had structural disease. However, 91% of patients obtained a clinical benefit from this therapy in terms of stabilization of the disease or complete remission or partial response. When considering the two groups separately, we did not find any difference in their outcome. When considering the response to 131-I therapy of the single type of metastases, 8% of lymph node metastases and 8% of lung metastases disappeared but none of the bone metastases. The response to 131-I therapy of the single type of metastases was similar when we looked at the two groups separately. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows (i) an overall clinical benefit of the 131-I therapy, since the majority of patients remained affected but with a stable disease, and (ii) that the preparation with either recombinant or endogenous TSH has no impact on the 131-I therapy efficacy and the outcome of our two groups of patients.

Protein kinase inhibitors for the treatment of advanced and progressive radiorefractory thyroid tumors: From the clinical trials to the real life.

The last ten years have been characterized by the introduction in the clinical practice of new drugs named tyrosine kinase inhibitors for the treatment of several human tumors. After the positive conclusion of two international multicentric, randomized phase III clinical trials, two of these drugs, sorafenib and lenvatinib, have been recently approved and they are now available for the treatment of advanced and progressive radioiodine refractory thyroid tumors. We have been involved in most clinical trials performed with different tyrosine kinase inhibitors in different histotypes of thyroid cancer thus acquiring a lot of experience in the management of both drugs and their adverse events. Aim of this review is to give an overview of both the rationale for the use of these inhibitors in thyroid cancer and the major results of the clinical trials. Some suggestions for the management of treated patients in the real life are also provided.

Postoperative Thyroglobulin and Neck Ultrasound in the Risk Restratification and Decision to Perform 131I Ablation.

Context: There is much debate surrounding the choice of which patient should be submitted to postsurgical remnant radioiodine remnant ablation (RRA), particularly in low-risk (LR) and intermediate-risk (IR) differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of postoperative high-sensitive thyroglobulin (Tg) on L-thyroxine (LT4-HSTg) and postoperative neck ultrasound (US) in risk restratification and decision to perform RRA. Patients: We evaluated 505 patients with LR or IR DTC 3 to 4 months after total thyroidectomy (TTx). All patients underwent RRA and a posttherapeutic whole body scan (ptWBS). Results: After TTx, 29.7% DTC patients had LT4-HSTg <0.1 ng/mL (Group A) and could be restratified as cured: 1 of 150 had lymph node metastases (LN mets) detected by neck US but negative at ptWBS. 56.8% DTC patients had LT4-HSTg between 0.1 and ≤1 ng/mL (Group B) and could be restratified either as cured or not cured. In this group, 15 of 287 (5.2%) had metastases but only 7 were detected by ptWBS; 13.5% DTC patients had LT4-HSTg >1 ng/mL (Group C) and could not be considered as cured by definition. LN mets were present in 11 of 68(16.2%) cases, all detected by neck US. No correlation was found with the presence of metastases and serum LT4-HSTg values or with the level of risk. Conclusions: LT4-HSTg measured 3 to 4 months after TTx is important in the risk restratification of DTC patients but is less relevant than neck US in the decision to perform RRA.