Cervical lymph node metastasis and papillary thyroid carcinoma: Does the compartment involved affect survival? Experience from the SEER database

Abstract

Patients age ≥ 45 with lateral/mediastinal cervical involvement have an increased risk of death from PTC in the initial years after diagnosis. Future studies are needed to elucidate optimal treatment and surveillance protocols for these patients, and also to ascertain the effect of cervical node location on long-term survival and disease-recurrence.