Risk Factors for Lymph Node Metastasis in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Jingxin Mao, Qinghai Zhang, Haiyan Zhang, Ke Zheng, Rui Wang, Guoze Wang
Abstract
Purpose: To investigate the risk factors that may predict the lymph node metastasis potential of these lesions and new prevention strategies in papillary thyroid carcinoma patients. Materials and Methods: A total of 9,369 papillary thyroid carcinoma patients with 37.17% lymph node metastasis were analyzed (Revman 5.3 software) in this study. The PubMed and Embase databases were systematically searched for works published since January 22, 2020. Results: The following variables were associated with an increased risk of lymph node metastasis in papillary thyroid carcinoma patients: age 1 cm), tumor location (1/3 upper), capsular invasion and ETE. Bilateral tumors and Hashimoto’ s thyroiditis do not appear to be correlated with lymph node metastasis in papillary thyroid carcinoma patients.