Analysis Of Risk Factors For Lateral Cervical Lymph Node Metastasis In Papillary Thyroid Microcarcinoma

Background and objective: Although most papillary thyroid microcarcinoma carries an excellent prognosis,itstill hassome severe aggressive biological behavior such as lateral lymph node metastasis in a few patients.We aim to find the risk factors of lateral lymph metastasis in PTMC patients,further to help finding a proper surgical strategy for these patients.Method: clinicopathological and genetic characteristics of 102 PTMC patients with lateral lymph node metastasis were retrospective analyzed,compared with 1129 PTMC patients without lateral lymph node metastasis,all the data were from the patients of the First Hospital of Jilin University between May 2014 and May 2016.Results: There existed significant differences in gender,age,tumor size,multifocality,bilaterality,capsular invasion,extrathyroidal infiltration,central lymph node metastasis between the two groups by univariate analysis,while BRAF mutation,preoperative TSH and anti-thyroglobulin level,hashimoto diseases showed no statistic differences between the two groups.Multivariate logistic regression indicated male gender(OR=2.588),tumor size > 0.5cm(OR=2.586),multifocality(OR=2.384),extrathyroidal infiltration(OR=2.533)and central lymph node metastasis number>3(OR=8.123)were the independent risk factors of lateral lymph node metastasis of PTMC patients.Conclusion: PTMC patients with male gender,tumor size>0.5cm,multifocality,extrathyroidal infiltration and central lymph node metastasis number>3 should be considered to have a high risk of lateral lymph node metastasis.BRAF mutation is not a predictor for lateral lymph node metastasis in PTMC patients.