THE CLINICAL FEATURES OF RADIOIODINE-RESISTANT DIFFERENTIATED THYROID CANCER: PRELIMINARY RESULTS

Abstract

Introduction. According to global statistics, thyroid cancer is the seventh most common cancer among all types of cancer. Thyroid cancer treatment using radioactive iodine effectively eliminates the remnants of thyroid tissue that accumulate I131. It is worth noting that some patients may experience disease progression even with treatment. Radioiodine-resistant differentiated thyroid cancer is a complex malignancy with limited treatment options, making early diagnosis a key priority for physicians. Aim: To investigate clinical features of radioiodine resistance in patients with highly differentiated thyroid cancer. Materials and methods of the study. The study design is a retrospective study. A database of patients from all over Kazakhstan treated in the radionuclide therapy department of the Center for Nuclear Medicine and Oncology of the Abay region from January to December 2023 was formed. 445 medical records were analyzed. A representative sample of 229 patients was selected using Epi Info v5.5.15 software from those records. This sample has high reliability (97%) with an expected frequency of 50% and an error of 5%. Results of the research and conclusion. In the study, 9.4% of 229 patients showed signs of refractoriness to radioiodine therapy. As a result, 4.5% of patients showed no radioiodine uptake in the areas of regional recurrence. Structural tumor progression was observed in 81%. Also, 9% of patients had tumors after radioiodine therapy without signs of remission. In addition, 4.5% of cases showed “Mismatch between I131 uptake on radioiodine SPECT/CT and 18F-FDG PET/CT”. It is essential to continue research in the direction of studying the resistance of patients to radioiodine therapy in order to clarify the influence of genetic factors on the response to I131 therapy. Further studies of these parameters remain relevant and require in-depth analysis.