Pediatric papillary thyroid carcinoma: postoperative management and 14-year experience with radioiodine therapy at a Portuguese oncology centre.
Post-therapy scintigraphy found unsuspected lung metastases in 17% of children with papillary thyroid carcinoma
Pediatric papillary thyroid carcinoma: postoperative management and 14-year experience with radioiodine therapy at a Portuguese oncology centre.
UNLABELLED: Radioiodine therapy (radioiodine therapy) remains an essential tool in both treatment and restaging of pediatrics papillary thyroid carcinoma (papillary thyroid carcinoma).
A retrospective observational study was conducted at a reference Oncological Institute, including 35 pediatrics patients (< 18 years) diagnosed with papillary thyroid carcinoma between 2010 and 2023.
Our aim was to describe the nuclear medicine management and outcomes of pediatric papillary thyroid carcinoma patients over a 14-year period, within the context of their clinical and surgical characteristics, with particular emphasis on the role of radioiodine therapy in post-surgical treatment and disease restaging.
Among the 35 patients (median age 15; 77% female), 54% had one or more risk factors, most frequently family history.
Twenty-eight underwent total thyroidectomy (7 with lymphadenectomy), and the remaining received a hemithyroidectomy.
This study supports the safety and utility of radioiodine therapy in pediatrics papillary thyroid carcinoma for both treatment and restaging.
Post-therapeutic scintigraphy remains a valuable diagnostic step in identifying unsuspected distant metastases. Our long-term results confirm excellent survival with favourable toxicity profiles in a multidisciplinary management approach.
WHAT IS KNOWN: • Pediatrics papillary thyroid carcinoma (papillary thyroid carcinoma) often presents with advanced disease but has excellent long-term survival.