Concerns of Gonadal Dysfunction Following Radioactive Iodine (RAI131) Treatment for Thyroid Cancer-Juniper Publishers
Cancer Therapy & Oncology-Juniper Publishers Introduction Differentiated thyroid cancer in young adults has an excellent prognosis with a long-term survival of over 90%. Radioactive iodine (RA1131) plays an important role in ablating thyroid remnants following thyroid surgery and is also used to treat residual, recurrent or metastatic disease. Its effects on the gonads and fertility are therefore of concern [1]. Keywords RAI131; Fertility; Thyroid cancer RA1131 and Male Fertility After RA1131 administration, testicular irradiation derives from free RA1131 that circulates in the blood and accumulates in the bladder, gut and any functioning metastases close to the testis causing testicular exposure to radiation. Later, the irradiation derives from RA1131 iodoproteins released in blood from damaged thyroid remnants or metastatic lesions. Radio-iodinated thyroglobulin and thyroxine disappear from the blood with half-lives of 3.2 and 10.1 days respectively, contributing...