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Over the years, there has been a longstanding companionship between the
thyroid gland and radioactive iodine. The saga of the use of radioiodine
in thyroidology started in November 1935 as a joint venture between the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Thyroid Unit of the
Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston(1). The President of MIT,
Dr Karl Compton, had given a lecture entitled "What Physics can do for
Biology and Medicine” and questions arose about the possible availability
of radioiodine. Thyroid studies started with 128I in 1937. In 1938, 130I
and 131I were discovered. In January 1941, the MGH-MIT team conducted the
first therapeutic trial with radioactive iodine, i.e. 130I, in the treatment
of hyperthyroidism(2). In early 1943, the group was unfortunately dismantled
because of World Ward II but Earl Chapman took over the radioiodine treatment
program(3). In 1946, 131I became routinely available from Oak Ridge National
Laboratory. This made the treatment of hyperthyroidism more practical and
its use was rapidly extended to thyroid carcinoma.
The success of radioiodine therapy in the treatment of hyperthyroidism and thyroid carcinoma has been amply confirmed in the medical literature. However, over the last decade, the hazards related to the pollution of our environment have also become a problem of major concern. In this respect, the potential risks related to radiation hazards arising for the public, include the radiations delivered by 131I-treated patients themselves. Opinions and official policies are much different on both sides of the Atlantic and even within the European Union countries. Reasonable compromises have obviously to be found in order to allow the patient to continue to benefit from radioiodine therapy and at the same time, to minimize the radiation hazards to the public, even if these radiation hazards finally represent a relatively limited risk as compared to those related to the general problem of pollution of our world. |
