Hi my husband has had a total thyroidectomy and neck dissection for thyroid cancer. He is due to start RAi in the next few weeks and I just wanted some advice or feedback from anyone who has had this treatment. Worried about the risks of treatment.
Hi my husband has had a total thyroidectomy and neck dissection for thyroid cancer. He is due to start RAi in the next few weeks and I just wanted some advice or feedback from anyone who has had this treatment. Worried about the risks of treatment.
Yes, I had radioiodine treatment. I don't think there are any great risks. From what I've heard and read, it might slightly increase the risk of leukemia, but from what I remember, it's something like raising a 2% lifetime risk to a 2.5% lifetime risk, something along those lines (those almost certainly aren't the real numbers but I mean the rise is of that magnitude, nothing most of us would worry about).
It's just a one-off, not something likely to be ongoing. Basically, he just takes a capsule and that is that. There are a lot of restrictions afterwards because he will be radioactive, but really, they will keep him in hospital when the risk is high, so there isn't really much to worry about.