Role of Thyrogen in Your Follow-up

As discussed briefly in the Testing section, not all patients need to stop taking thyroid hormones for thyroglobulin (Tg) testing or a whole body scan (WBS) — instead, your doctor may prescribe Thyrogen^®. This section takes a more detailed look at hypothyroidism, the condition caused by stopping your thyroid medication. Then it explains what Thyrogen is, how it’s used, and how it might fit into your life. For more information, please read the full product information. Please see important safety information below.

Thyrogen is recombinant human thyroid stimulating hormone (rhTSH) that is given before testing. Thyrogen should activate any thyroid or thyroid cancer cells in your body. This will make the cells produce thyroglobulin (Tg) that will show up in a Tg blood test. Any activated cells should also show up in a WBS with radioiodine. If either of these things happens, it is likely that you have thyroid cells in your body. These cells may be cancerous. Please see important safety information below.

If Thyrogen is prescribed by your doctor, instead of going off your hormone therapy for weeks before your tests, you will have two injections. These are the procedures you would undergo with Thyrogen:

Your physician will help explain that it is important to follow this schedule. To help you with planning, you can download a testing schedule (PDF) that you and your doctor can fill out. Please see important safety information below.

Please see important safety information below.

Important safety information about Thyrogen

In studies, the most common side effects experienced by people taking Thyrogen were nausea, headache, weakness, or vomiting after their injection. Cases of hives, rash, itching, or flushing were also reported.

Four patients out of 55 (7.3%) with CNS metastases who were followed in a special treatment protocol experienced acute hemiplegia, hemiparesis or pain one to three days after Thyrogen administration. The symptoms were attributed to local edema and/or focal hemorrhage at the site of the cerebral or spinal cord metastases. In addition, one case each of acute visual loss and of laryngeal edema with respiratory distress, requiring tracheotomy, with onset of symptoms within 24 hours after Thyrogen administration, have been reported in patients with metastases to the optic nerve and paratracheal areas, respectively. In addition, sudden, rapid and painful enlargement of locally recurring papillary carcinoma has been reported within 12-48 hours of Thyrogen administration. The enlargement was accompanied by dyspnea, stridor or dysphonia. Rapid clinical improvement occurred following glucocorticoid therapy. It is recommended that pretreatment with glucocorticoids be considered for patients in whom local tumor expansion may compromise vital anatomic structures.

A 77 year-old non-thyroidectomized patient with a history of heart disease and spinal metastases who received 4 Thyrogen injections over 6 days in a special treatment protocol experienced a fatal MI 24 hours after he received the last Thyrogen injection. The event was likely related to Thyrogen-induced hyperthyroidism.

For more information, please see the Adverse Reactions section of the full product information. If you experience any side effects or have any questions, contact your doctor.

To learn more about Thyrogen, please click here to view and download a PDF version of the booklet, Understanding Thyrogen: Your Guide to Thyrogen and Its Role in the Monitoring of Well-Differentiated Thyroid Cancer.

More detail is also available in the full product information (PDF).