Lymph node characteristics of 6279 N1 differentiated thyroid cancer patients

Abstract

Purpose: This study examined the clinicopathological characteristics of 6279 N1 differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) patients who underwent opera tions in our center. Methods: This was a retrospective longitudinal analysis. We categorized the DTC patients on the basis of various lymph node (LN) characteristics. Logist ic regression models and multiple linear regression models were used for the correlation analysis. Results: A total of 3693 (58.8%) N1a patients and 2586 (41.2%) N1b pati ents were included. Patients with N1b disease had larger metastatic foci (0.5 vs 0.15 cm), a greater number of metastatic LNs (5 vs 2), a greater number of dissecte d LNs (25 vs 7), and a smaller lymph node ratio (NR, number of positive LNs/number of sampled LNs) (23.1% vs 28.6%) than patients in stage N1a. Comparing the clin icopathological features, we found that male, increased tumor size, multifocality, and th yroiditis increased the risk of stage N1b disease (P 1 cm, central neck metastasis and age were independent predictors for bilateral la teral neck metastasis (BLNM) (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The LN characteristics of stage N1a and N1b disease were assoc iated with significantly different features, such as sex, tumor size, multif ocality, capsular infiltration, and nodular goiter.

Keywords

• differentiated thyroid cancer
• lymph node metastases
• lymph node ratio
• location
• neck dissection