Efficacy Analysis of 131I Therapy in Serum Thyroglobulin Antibody Positive Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma with Distant Metastasis

Background Differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) with distant metastasis generally forecasts a poor prognosis. Timely diagnosis and effective treatment of distant metastasis are pivotal and challenging in clinical practice. Serum thyroglobulin (Tg) is a marker for monitoring tumor residue or recurrence/metastasis post-surgery and post-131I therapy in DTC. Thyroglobulin antibodies (TgAb) are autoantibodies against Tg that can potentially interfere with Tg measurement. Presently, literature on 131I treatment of TgAb positive DTC with distant metastasis is sparse. Objective To investigate the efficacy of 131I therapy in TgAb positive DTC with distant metastasis. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on clinical data of 189 DTC patients treated with 131I from January 2017 to January 2022 at the People's Hospital of Zhengzhou University. Pre-treatment and follow-up measurements of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), Tg, and TgAb were collected. Patients were categorized into TgAb positive (29 cases) and T