Spotlight on the Association of Radioactive Iodine Treatment With Cancer Mortality in Patients With Hyperthyroidism is Keeping the Highest Risk From Antithyroid Drugs in the Blind Spot.

ABSTRACT

July 1, 2019, JAMA Internal Medicine released online an article authored by Kitahara et al entitled "Association of radioactive iodine treatment with cancer mortality in patients with hyperthyroidism." The Altmetric Attention Score, a global indicator of interest from lay public and colleagues, skyrocketed to 223 by July 7, placing the article in the top 5% of all scored reports. The overall perception of death from cancer risk associated with I is inflated and not supported by evidence. As co-authors of this article, we offer previously unpublished data and analysis that (1) disputes clinical significance of the associated risk from I and (2) shows, again, that antithyroid drugs carry a statistically significant and a much more obvious cancer death risk.