Correlation analysis of risk factors for cervical lymphatic metastasis in papillary thyroid carcinoma

Abstract

Abstract Objective This study aims to identify and analyze the risk factors associated with Cervical Lymph Node Metastasis (CNM) in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma (PTC) patients. Methods We conducted a retrospective study involving the clinicopathological data of 2384 PTC patients admitted to our hospital between January 2016 and December 2020. All relevant data were statistically processed and analyzed. Results The related risk factors for Central Lymph Node Metastasis (CLNM) were gender (male), age (≤ 30 years old), tumor lesion size (> 0.855 cm), and multifocal tumor foci. The ROC curve revealed that the critical value for predicting CLNM based on tumor lesion size was 0.855 (sensitivity = 57.9%, specificity = 69%, AUC = 0.269, and P 0.855 cm), and multiple tumor lesions in PTC patients. Central Lymph Node Dissection (CLND) is recommended for patients with these risk factors. On the other hand, preoperative ultrasound examination, fine-needle pathological examination, and genetic testing should be used to determine whether Lateral Cervical Lymph Node Dissection (LLND) is needed.

Keywords

• Papillary thyroid carcinoma
• Cervical lymph node metastasis
• Relevant risk factors
• BRAF gene mutation