| Message: | Physicians can use this instead of or in addition to levothyroxine (T4) for patients undergoing thyroid withdrawal. When a patient has thyroid cancer or Graves' disease, ablation therapy with radioactive iodine can be used to remove any trace thyroid tissue. For 131I therapy to be effective, the trace thyroid tissue must be avid to iodine. The best method is to starve the tissue of iodine but this can lead to hypothyroid symptoms for the patient. Withdrawal from levothyroxine can be done but it takes six weeks of withdrawal for the remaining thyroid tissue to be completely starved. Six weeks is needed owing to levothyroxine's long half life. Six weeks can be inconvenient for the patient and delay treatment. Liothyronine instead can be taken and withdrawn from for two weeks to starve the thyroid tissue. This is much safer and more convenient than levothyroxine. |
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