Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2025 Jan;87(1):1-10.
doi: 10.1007/s12020-024-04018-5. Epub 2024 Sep 4.

An update on redifferentiation strategies for radioactive iodine-refractory differentiated thyroid carcinoma

Theodora Pappa  1   2   3   4 , Lori Wirth  5   6   7
Affiliations
Review

An update on redifferentiation strategies for radioactive iodine-refractory differentiated thyroid carcinoma

Theodora Pappa et al. Endocrine. 2025 Jan.

Abstract

Purpose: Although most patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) have an excellent prognosis, a subset will experience radioactive iodine refractory (RAI-R) disease, associated with recurrence, distant metastases and worse prognosis. In recent years, redifferentiation has emerged as an attractive approach for patients with RAI-R DTC, a strategy to induce iodine uptake in RAI-R DTC tumor cells and ultimately prolong time to initiation of systemic therapy.

Methods: An overview and critical appraisal of the existing literature on redifferentiation will be presented in this review under the lens of the genotype-specific targeted therapy administered with redifferentiation intent.

Results/conclusions: Due to the significant heterogeneity across studies, it will be key to harmonize research methodology and support future larger, multicenter prospective trials in order to identify the most suitable candidates for this therapeutic strategy.

Keywords: Differentiated thyroid carcinoma; Radioactive iodine; Radioactive iodine refractory; Redifferentiation strategy; Systemic therapy; Theranostics.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Compliance with ethical standards. Conflict of interest: The authors declare no competing interests.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. H. Lim, S.S. Devesa, J.A. Sosa, D. Check, C.M. Kitahara, Trends in thyroid cancer incidence and mortality in the United States, 1974-2013. JAMA 317(13), 1338–1348 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2017.2719 . - DOI - PubMed - PMC
    1. J. Yu, Trends in the incidence of thyroid cancer among US persons from 2000 to 2019. Eur. J. Cancer Prev. 33(1), 5–10 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1097/CEJ.0000000000000827 . - DOI - PubMed
    1. L. Schubert et al. “Clinico-pathological factors associated with radioiodine refractory differentiated thyroid carcinoma status,” J. Endocrinol. Invest, (2024) https://doi.org/10.1007/s40618-024-02352-z .
    1. C. Durante et al. Long-term outcome of 444 patients with distant metastases from papillary and follicular thyroid carcinoma: benefits and limits of radioiodine therapy. J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 91(8), 2892–2899 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2005-2838 . - DOI - PubMed
    1. J. Wassermann et al. Outcomes and prognostic factors in radioiodine refractory differentiated thyroid carcinomas. Oncologist 21(1), 50–58 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1634/theoncologist.2015-0107 . - DOI - PubMed

MeSH terms

Substances

LinkOut - more resources