Suppressive therapy for thyroid nodules - Preliminary results of a prospective evaluation by the Groupe de Recherche sur la Thyroide

The benefit of thyroid hormone for patients with thyroid nodule is still co ntroversial. Suppressive therapy is not useful to distinguish benign or mal ignant tumors, since some malignant nodules become smaller and most benign nodules do not shrink with thyroid hormone therapy. A prospective evaluatio n was conducted by the french Groupe de Recherche sur la Thyroide on 123 pa tients with solitary nodules: ultrasonographic volume of the nodules regres sed from 2,76 to 2.39 ml with suppressive doses of levothyroxine for 18 mon ths, while a progression from 3.6 to 4.1 ml was seen for patients with plac ebo. The benefit of the suppressive therapy was also obvious on the microno dular dystrophy detected by ultrasonography. No side effects were seen in t reated patients. These preliminary results argue for the benefit of suppres sive therapy, as suggested by meta-analysis of the published randomized tri als.