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Pattern of initial metastasis in the cervical lymph node from papillary thyroid carcinoma
Surgery Today, 07/11/2012
Onoda N et al. – The current results demonstrated the pattern of initial lymphatic spread in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) cases, and indicated the importance of evaluating the lateral nodes of at least compartments III and IV for accurate pathological staging, as well as for investigating the nature of the disease.
Methods- This study reviewed 501 consecutive patients with PTC who had been surgically treated, accompanied by routine node dissection of the central, and lateral compartments.
- Thirty-eight cases were found to have only one metastatic node, and 62 cases were found to have 2 or 3 metastatic nodes.
- The locations of these metastatic nodes were mapped, and evaluated.
- The initial lymph node metastasis occurred equally in the lateral and central compartments (19 vs. 19 nodes).
- Metastatic nodes were more frequently found in the central compartment (60 and 65 %) in cases with 2- and 3-node involvements.
- Twenty-two (60 %) and 33 (65 %) cases had at least one instance of lateral node involvement in those cases, respectively.
