Development of severe thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy in a patient with disseminated thyroid cancer treated with recombinant human thyrotropin/radioiodine and retinoic acid.

• We present a case in which a patient with disseminated well-differentiated papillary thyroid cancer developed severe thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy. Eight years after initial surgery and ablative radioiodine therapy the patient was found to have multiple pulmonary metastases. The metastases showed poor uptake of radioiodine. An attempt was made to use 13-cis-retinoic acid in order to achieve a redifferentiation of the thyroid cancer cells before recombinant human thyrotropin (rhTSH) stimulated radioiodine therapy. The treatment did not improve the uptake of radioiodine. However, approximately 2 weeks after completion of the treatment the patient experienced discomfort in her eyes and then over the next months she developed a severe ophthalmopathy. The analyses of TSH receptor antibodies and S-thyroglobulin simultaneously showed a pronounced increase. An association between therapy given and severe ophthalmopathy cannot be excluded.

Nyckelord

Aged

Female

Graves Ophthalmopathy

etiology

Humans

Iodine Radioisotopes

administration & dosage

adverse effects

Isotretinoin

administration & dosage

adverse effects

Recombinant Proteins

adverse effects

Thyroglobulin

blood

Thyroid Neoplasms

complications

therapy

Thyroidectomy

Thyrotropin

administration & dosage

adverse effects

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