ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the clinical value of nodal metastatic characteristics in predicting the distant metastasis of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC).Methods A total of 1 408 PTC patients who met the inclusion criteria and received initial thyroidectomy at our department from January 2006 to December 2011 were enrolled in this study.Results After a median follow-up time of 7.8 years,distant metastases developed in 46 patients.Patients with lateral neck lymph node metastasis ≥7,individual size of lateral neck lymph node metastasis ≥ 1.15 cm and the total number of cervical lymph node metastasis ≥9 were prone to higher risk of distant metastasis;the high risk group had a lower 10-year distant metastasisfree survival (78.7％ vs.98％,x2 =122.941,P ＜0.01) and a shorter distant metastasis-free survival time (99.2 M vs.122.5 M,x2 =122.941,P ＜ 0.01).Conclusions Lateral lymph node metastasis is an independent risk factor for distant metastasis in PTC patients.