Sodium iodide symporter immunolabelling as a predictor of clinical iodide uptake in canine thyroid carcinoma: A preliminary study

Abstract Thyroid follicular tumours may take up iodide via the sodium‐iodide symporter. Knowledge of iodide uptake could then allow treatment with I‐131 in dogs with high‐risk tumours. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between clinically detectable iodide uptake (as determined by scintigraphy and/or thyroxine concentrations) and sodium iodide symporter immunohistochemical labelling on histologically fixed thyroid tumours. Nineteen dogs were identified who were diagnosed with thyroid carcinoma and underwent surgery from November 2017 to July 2021. All had recorded thyroid hormone concentrations and were hyperthyroid and/or underwent preoperative nuclear imaging using planar scintigraphy (technetium‐99m or I‐123), or I‐124 PET‐CT. All dogs subsequently underwent surgery to remove the thyroid mass. Twenty‐two tumours were submitted for histopathologic analysis immediately following surgery, which confirmed a diagnosis of thyroid carcinoma for each tumour. Images and/or thyroid hormone concentrations were reviewed for the included cases, and tumours were sorted into an avid/functional group (group 1) and a non‐avid/functional group (group 2). The tumour tissues were re‐examined histologically using sodium iodide symporter (NIS) immunohistochemistry (IHC). Group 1 contained 15 avid/functional tumours. Twelve of these tumours had membranous NIS IHC labelling. Group 2 contained 7 non‐avid tumours. One of these tumours had membranous NIS IHC labelling. This resulted in an overall sensitivity and specificity for identification of avid/functional tumours with membranous NIS of 80.0% and 85.7%, respectively. NIS IHC may predict ion trapping in canine follicular thyroid tumours. Further studies using iodide‐based imaging are warranted to better determine the clinical utility of this diagnostic modality.