TABLE 4.

Goals of RAI Therapy in Differentiated Thyroid Cancer (1)

RAI therapy type	Goal	Potential benefit
Remnant ablation	Destroy normal thyroid tissue remaining after total thyroidectomy	Improve initial staging; facilitate highly sensitive follow-up
Adjuvant treatment	Destroy subclinical microscopic tumor deposits that may be present	Decrease recurrence; improve disease-specific survival
Treatment of known residual/recurrent disease	Destroy known residual/recurrent disease	Achieve excellent response (remission)
		Improve disease-specific survival
		Improve progression-free survival