Implementation of dosimetry for patients with thyroid carcinoma undergoing I-131 therapy

I-131 (radioiodine) is used for the treatment of thyroid cancer. Calculation of the doses that patients receive from the therapy could help determine the optimum amount of activity to administer and avoid under or over treatment. This could increase patient survival and reduce the number of treatments needed. However, dosimetry is not routinely performed for these patients. Issues include determining the optimum time points for measurements, modality to use for measurements and accurate quantification of activity using that modality.

Therefore, this work aims to investigate methods of performing dosimetry and improving quantitative accuracy. This will be performed by both assessing literature and surveying the current practice within the UK for these therapies in terms of measurements taken, whether dosimetry is performed and how it is performed. Based on this, practical methods for performing dosimetry will be developed, with the aim to implement these locally. External validation of the technique developed will be performed by the National Physics Laboratory.