Metastatic lymph node characteristics predicting prognosis of papillary thyroid cancer patients

Metastases to cervical lymph nodes (LNs) in patients with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) are common and associated with up to 80% of PTC patients (1). Cervical LN metastasis itself has been known as a risk factor for recurrent/persistent disease and PTC with lateral cervical LN metastasis has a worse prognosis than that with central neck LN metastasis (2,3).