What Are Side Effects of Iodine 131 treatment after Thyroidectomy

[aliala]

My mom who is 66 yr old just had a full thyroidectomy as part of her thyroid cancer treatment. The pathalogy tests shows that it was early stage 1 papillary thyroid carcinoma. The doctors however given her a choice for the follow-up Radioactive Iodine 131 treatment. She is told that if she was younger than 50, she would not have needed it. But since she's over 50, there is 50/50 chance that it can 1) either help if there are residual cancerous cells, or 2) it can lead to cancer in other places if she's susceptible. What's the literature on this? Are these claims correct? Thanks

[Mark Lupo, M.D.]

If she is stage I at this age, then this is a tumor <2cm without any aggressive behavior or lymph node involvement. Current guidelines would favor no radioiodine treatment.  Exceptions would be Follicular or Hurthle cancer - but most of these are papillary so the above would hold true.

[iamshobs]

Hi, I was diagnosed the same thing. I was 46. I underwent radioactive iodine treatment. 3 years after (which would be next year for me) I have to go for another test to check that there is no residual cancerous cells.