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About the Author

1. Introduction
2. Recurrence rates and the need for follow-up
3. Thyrogen in follow-up
4. Summary
5. About the Author

Ernest L. Mazzaferri, MD MACP

Dr. Mazzaferri is Emeritus Professor of Internal Medicine and Physiology at The Ohio State University where he served as chairman of the department of internal medicine for 16 years. He is a Master of the American College of Physicians and is the author of over 350 peer reviewed publications, editorials and review articles. He is the author of four books and of several textbooks, including Endocrine Tumors, Essentials of Thyroid Cancer Management, and Practical Management of Thyroid Cancer and is former Editor-in-Chief of the Year Book of Endocrinology and editor of the endocrine section of the Year Book of Medicine. Currently he is the editor-in-chief of Clinical Thyroidology. He served on the Board of Directors of the American Board of Internal Medicine and Chair of the Endocrine Board of that organization. In 2005 he was president of the American Thyroid Association and the recipient of the Endocrine Society Distinguished Educator Award.

1. Introduction
2. Recurrence rates and the need for follow-up
3. Thyrogen in follow-up
4. Summary
5. About the Author

Thyroid cancer at a glance...

According to the American Cancer Society's Facts and Figures 2008, thyroid cancer occurs three times more often in women than in men, ranking it in the top ten cancers diagnosed in women.

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Download these resources about thyroid cancer and Thyrogen for your patients.

Full Prescribing Information (PDF)

Understanding Thyroid Cancer

Managing Thyroid Cancer with Thyrogen

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Indication
Thyrogen (thyrotropin alfa for injection) is indicated for use as an adjunctive diagnostic tool for serum thyroglobulin (Tg) testing with or without radioiodine imaging in the follow-up of patients with well-differentiated thyroid cancer.

Thyrogen (thyrotropin alfa for injection) is indicated for use as an adjunctive treatment for radioiodine ablation of thyroid tissue remnants in patients who have undergone a near-total or total thyroidectomy for well-differentiated thyroid cancer and who do not have evidence of metastatic thyroid cancer.

Important Safety Information

When Thyrogen-stimulated serum thyroglobulin (Tg) testing is performed in combination with radioiodine imaging, there remains a meaningful risk of missing a diagnosis of thyroid cancer or of underestimating the extent of disease.
Although Thyrogen appeared non-inferior to thyroid hormone withdrawal in a study of postsurgical thyroid remnant ablation, long-term clinical outcome data are limited. Due to relatively small clinical experience with Thyrogen in remnant ablation, it is not possible to conclude whether long-term thyroid cancer outcomes would be equivalent after use of Thyrogen or hormone withdrawal for TSH elevation prior to remnant ablation.
Caution should be exercised in patients with a known history of heart disease and with significant residual thyroid tissue. Careful evaluation of benefit risk should be assessed for high risk elderly patients with functioning thyroid tumors undergoing Thyrogen administration, to avoid palpitations or cardiac rhythm disorder.
It is recommended that pretreatment with glucocorticoids be considered for patients in whom local tumor expansion may comprise vital anatomic structures (such as trachea, central nervous system, or extensive macroscopic lung metastases).
In clinical studies, the most common side effects reported were nausea, headache, fatigue, vomiting, dizziness, paraesthesia, asthenia, insomnia, and diarrhea.

Please see accompanying full Prescribing Information.