Question:
Does anyone know why radioactive iodine is used on the thyroid as a cancer
treatment?
Answer:
Well, to the best of my knowledge, the only organ that utilizes iodine
is the thyroid gland. It is for this reason that radioactive iodine is used
to kill off remaining thyroid tissue after surgical removal. Apparently,
surgery can only remove most of the gland but a few, very small, parts will
remain that couldn't be removed and so it used to kill them off and prevent
any possibility of thyroid production. It is the only method I know of that
is effective in this capacity.
