ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: To evaluate the clinical value of 1251 seed implantation in the treatment of lymph node metastasis of 111 cases of refractory differentiated thyroid cancer (RAIR-DTC). METHODS AND MATERIALS: From January 2015 to June 2016, 42 patients with RAIR-DTC with lymph node metastasis (14 males and 28 females, median age 49 years) were analyzed retrospectively. After CT-guided 1251 seed implantation, CT was reexamined 2,4,6 months after operation, and the changes of metastatic lymph node size, serum thyroglobulin (Tg) level and complications were compared before or after treatment. Paired-Samples T Test, Methods repetitive measure analysis of variance, Spearman correlation coefficient analysis were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Among the 42 patients, 2 had complete remission (4.76%), 9 had partial remission (21.43%), 29 had no change (69.05%), and 2 had disease progression (4.76%), with an overall effective rate of 95.24% (40/42). The diameter of lymph node metastasis was (1.39 ± 0.75) cm after treatment and (1.99 ± 0.38) cm before treatment; the diameter of lymph node metastasis was significantly reduced after treatment compared with that before metastasis (t = 5.557, P< 0.01); the serum Tg at 2, 4 and 6 months after treatment were (53.34 ± 14.05) ug/L, (33.17 + 7.61)ug/L and (25.93 ± 10.91)ug/L, respectively, compared with (57.72 ± 15.23)ug/L before treatment, and the differences between serum Tg after treatment and before treatment were all statistically significant (F = 23.612,P<0.05). Except for the diameter of lymph node metastasis (χ2 = 4.524, P<0.05), the patients' age, gender, metastasis site and the number of implanted particles per lesion were not influential factors in the efficacy (χ2 = 0.569-15.884, rs = 0.277, all P>0.05). CONCLUSION: 125I RSIT can significantly alleviate the clinical symptoms of RAIR-DTC patients with LNM, and the LNM lesions size has relevance for the treatment effect. The clinical follow-up time of serum Tg level can be extended to 6 months or even longer.