Subsequent fertility and birth histories of children and adolescents treated with 131I for thyroid cancer.

Forty patients aged 20 years or less who had been treated with 131I after surgery for papillary-follicular thyroid carcinoma were contacted for followup study. Five had died and two were unmarried; the remaining 33 were studied with respect to their subsequent reproductive histories and the health of the offspring. The mean age at the time of the first 131I therapeutic dose was 14.6 years (range 6-20), and the average followup interval, from that first dose until followup, was 18.7 years (range 14-25). The mean total dose of 131I was 196 mCi (range 80-691). The incidences of infertility (12%), miscarriage (1.4%), prematurity (8%), and major congenital anomaly (1.4%) found in this series are not significantly different from those in the general population. Thus, our study offers no overt evidence of genetic damage in children and adolescents treated with high doses of 131I for thyroid carcinoma.