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Updated: Jan 26, 2026

Transoral Robotic Total Thyroidectomy and Bilateral Central Regional Lymph Node Dissection for Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma
Published on: September 15, 2023
Clinicopathological predictors of occult lateral neck lymph node metastasis in papillary thyroid cancer: A
Shaohua Zhan1, Dan Luo1, Wei Ge1
1Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, National Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Biology and Department of Immunology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
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.
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