Radioactive iodine therapy is recommended to many patients with thyroid cancer, especially those at increased risk for cancer recurrence after surgery. After a thyroidectomy for papillary thyroid cancer or follicular thyroid cancer, you will have radioactive iodine therapy to eliminate any remaining thyroid cells. Every day the doctors will come and take measurements from you to work out how much radiation is left in your body.
RAI therapy is most commonly recommended after a thyroidectomy for people with follicular thyroid cancer or advanced papillary thyroid cancer. The timing of this treatment following thyroidectomy has been debated and this study sought to determine whether the timing of radioactive iodine therapy following thyroid surgery affected thyroid. Radioactive Iodine Treatment for Papillary Thyroid Cancer Radioactive iodine (RAI) treatment is used to destroy abnormal thyroid tissue that might have been left behind or missed during surgery.
For a few days after radioactive iodine treatment, you will be slightly radioactive.