Clinicopathological predictors of occult lateral neck lymph node metastasis in papillary thyroid cancer: A meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: This meta-analysis aimed to identify the clinicopathological factors that could predict the risk of occult lateral neck lymph node metastasis (OLLNM) in N0/N1a papillary thyroid cancer (PTC).

METHODS: A literature search of PubMed, Web of Science, OvidSP, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure databases was performed using relevant keywords. Specific odds ratios and confidence intervals were calculated.

RESULTS: The final analysis included 15 studies with a total of 5342 patients. OLLNM was found to be significantly associated with some clinicopathological features, including age <45 years, male sex, extrathyroidal extension, tumor location in the upper pole, tumor size >10 mm, positive central lymph node metastasis, number of central lymph node metastasis ≥3, and vascular invasion.

CONCLUSIONS: Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) cytology or FNA-Tg test might be an appropriate and reasonable intervention in the patients with N0/N1a PTC with an increased risk of OLLNM.