Predictive Value of Gene Polymorphisms on Recurrence after the Withdrawal of Antithyroid Drugs in Patients with Graves’ Disease

Graves' disease (GD) is one of the most common endocrine diseases. Antithyroid drugs (ATDs) treatment is frequently used as the first-choice therapy for GD patients in most countries due to the superiority in safety and tolerance. However, GD patients treated with ATD have a relatively high recurrence rate after drug withdrawal, which is a main limitation for ATD treatment. It is of great importance to identify some predictors of the higher recurrence risk for GD patients, which may facilitate an appropriate therapeutic approach for a given patient at the time of GD diagnosis. The genetic factor was widely believed to be an important pathogenesis for GD. Increasing studies were conducted to investigate the relationship between gene polymorphisms and the recurrence risk in GD patients. In this article, we updated the current literatures to highlight the predictive value of gene polymorphisms on recurrence risk in GD patients after ATD withdrawal. Some gene polymorphisms, such as CTLA4 rs231775, human leukocyte antigen polymorphisms (DRB1*03, DQA1*05, and DQB1*02) might be associated with the high recurrence risk in GD patients. Further prospective studies on patients of different ethnicities, especially studies with large sample sizes, and long-term follow-up, should be conducted to confirm the predictive roles of gene polymorphism.