DETECTION OF THYROID TUMOURS USING RADIO-LABELLED ANTI-THYROGLOBULIN

Abstract

IgG antibody to human thyroglobulin was labelled with ¹³¹Iodine (¹³¹I) and used to locate deposits of thyroid follicular and papillary tumours with a gamma camera. Of twelve patients studied a total of 40 tumour‘areas’were detected by a variety of clinical and radiological techniques. Sixteen of these were detected using conventional ¹³¹I uptake scans whereas 34 were positive on the antibody scans. The difficulty of assessing diffuse pulmonary lesions (3 areas) and the possibility that free ¹³¹I from labelled antibody may have contributed to the antibody scan results in six areas left 31 definite areas for scan comparison. Twenty seven (87%) areas were positive on the antibody scan, nine (29%) were positive on conventional ¹³¹I scans whilst 24 (77%) areas were detected by a combination of clinical and other radiological criteria. Five areas were positive on the antibody scan alone but there was evidence, albeit indefinite, that these areas contained tumour. Four of the 31 areas were not detected by the antibody scans. The results indicate that anti‐thyroglobulin scanning is more sensitive than conventional ¹³¹I‐iodide scans and may contribute to the staging and management of thyroid cancer.