Recombinant Human Thyroid Stimulating Hormone versus Thyroid Hormone Withdrawal for Radioactive Iodine Treatment of Differentiated Thyroid Cancer with Nodal Metastatic Disease

Table 1

(a) Baseline characteristics. (b) Thyroid cancer staging and initial RAI treatment.

(a)

Parameter	THW; ()	rhTSH; ()	value
Age at ablation
Mean ± SD (years)	38.2 ± 12.4	45.7 ± 16.2	0.039
<45	23 (74%)	22 (52%)	0.075
>45	8 (26%)	20 (48%)
Male	6 (19%)	17 (40%)
Female	25 (81%)	25 (60%)	0.08
Histology			0.92
Papillary thyroid cancer	29 (94%)	41 (98%)
Classical variant	9 (29%)	10 (24%)
Follicular variant	6 (19%)	9 (21%)
Mixed classical/follicular variant	4 (13%)	6 (14%)
Aggressive variant	3 (10%)	5 (12%)
Cystic variant	1 (3%)	0 (0%)
Variant not available	6 (19%)	11 (26%)
Follicular thyroid cancer	0 (0%)	0 (0%)
Hurthle cell thyroid cancer	0 (0%)	0 (0%)
Poorly differentiated cancer	1 (3%)	1 (3%)
Thyroid cancer not specified	1 (3%)	0 (0%)
Size of primary thyroid cancer (cm)	2.9 ± 1.5	2.2 ± 1.5	0.09
Median	2.6	2.0

(b)

Parameter	THW; ()	rhTSH; ()	value
Tumor staging			0.59
1	7 (23%)	13 (31%)
2	6 (19%)	4 (10%)
3	15 (48%)	22 (52%)
4a	3 (10%)	3 (7%)
4b	0 (0%)	0 (0%)
Nodal staging			0.73
1a	21 (68%)	30 (71%)
1b	10 (32%)	12 (29%)
Metastatic staging			0.24
0	30 (97%)	42 (100%)
1	1 (3%)	0 (0%)
AJCC staging			0.17
1	22 (71%)	22 (52%)
2	1 (3%)	0 (0%)
3	5 (16%)	13 (31%)
4a	3 (10%)	7 (17%)
4b	0 (0%)	0 (0%)
4c	0 (0%)	0 (0%)
ATA recurrence risk			0.33
Low	0 (0%)	0 (0%)
Intermediate	23 (74%)	37 (88%)
High	8 (26%)	5 (12%)
Administered RAI activity (GBq)	4.58 ± 1.49	4.52 ± 0.92	0.48
Duration of follow-up (years)	8.6 ± 2.4	6.8 ± 2.1	0.01