High-dose external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) was effective in controlling locally advanced, differentiated thyroid cancer in a retrospective study.
Dr. Kenyon M. Meadows and his associates at the University of Florida, Gainesville reviewed the records and assessed outcomes in all 42 patients who were treated for advanced or recurrent thyroid cancer with adjuvant high-dose EBRT at their university between April 1962 and January 2003. The median patient age was 58 years. Ten patients died from thyroid cancer during a mean follow-up of 7 years, while 16 died from unrelated causes. The rate of local or regional recurrence at 5 years was 0% for patients who had no gross residual disease when they underwent EBRT and 30% for those who did have gross residual disease at the time of EBRT (Am. J. Otolaryngol. 2006;27:24–8).
There were no cases of local or regional recurrences in patients who received doses greater than 64 Gy, suggesting a dose-response relationship.
Five-year cause-specific survival was 90% for patients who had no gross residual tumor when they underwent EBRT and 69% for those with gross residual disease. Five-year survival free of distant metastases was 82% for those without evidence of metastasis at the time of EBRT.