Re: Thyrogen- no longer available for thyroid cancer treatment

[Guest guest]

I know I'm new and still getting confused. But if he has no thyroid, how will he

convert T4 into T3. Surely he needs T3?

2

>

> Hello everyone

> A friend's husband is being treated for thyroid cancer. His thyroid was

removed yesterday and he is on T3. He will then have radioactive iodine

treatment which requires him to come off the T3 so the symptoms of

hypothyroidism will be dreadful. They used to give Thyrogen which enabled the

patient to continue on the T3, rather than stopping, but this is no longer

available for some reason.

[Guest guest]

http://www.thyrogen.com/pdfs/supplyupdate-2011.pdfThere is a shortage of thryogen and the manufacturer, Genzyme, forsees shortages into 2012. Sorry can't help out about going Hypo before RAI...only ever had thyrogen. From: louhartup

<lhartup@...>

Hello everyone

A friend's husband is being treated for thyroid cancer. His thyroid was removed yesterday and he is on T3. He will then have radioactive iodine treatment which requires him to come off the T3 so the symptoms of hypothyroidism will be dreadful. They used to give Thyrogen which enabled the patient to continue on the T3, rather than stopping, but this is no longer available for some reason. Anyone know more? Thereafter he'll be on T4 only and will be tested to see if the cancer has gone and if not, he has to go through the radioactive treatment again.

Grateful to know if anyone has any comments that will help this lovely family.

LLx

[Guest guest]

When people have their thyroid removed, they have no way of

making thyroxine (T4), which is the mainly inactive thyroid hormone that has to

convert to the active thyroid hormone T3. T3 is made from T4. So, for those

left with no thyroid, the treatment doctors will start them off with is

levothyroxine (T4). The doctor hopes that his patient will automatically

convert the T4 into T3. The majority of patients do appear to convert fine, and

conversion happens mainly in the liver, kidneys, brain, skin and other thyroid

hormone receptors throughout the whole of the body. However, for a large

minority of us, they are unable, for many and varied reasons, to convert, so T4

is useless, so they need T3. Doctors should them prescribe T3 for such

patients. However, they will always try T4 first. Some will need T4/T3

combination, some will need T3 on its own, and others will need natural thyroid

extract that contains T4, T3, T2, T1 plus calcitonin.

It is very confusing when you first start to learn about the

functioning of the thyroid.

Luv - Sheila

I know I'm new and still getting confused. But if he has no thyroid, how

will he convert T4 into T3. Surely he needs T3?

2

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[Guest guest]

Thanks so much - will pass the information on. LLx