Objective: To investigate the correlations of cervical lymph node metastasis with the chinicopathological characteristics and BRAF V600E gene mutation in the patients with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), and to clarify the influencing factors of cervical lymph nodes metastasis in the patients with PTC.
MethodsThe PTC patients underwent surgical therapy in our hospital were selected;the patients’ clinical data were retrospectively analyzed, including age, sex, side, number, metastatic lymph nodes and location of the PTC patients, and the pathologic data were also analyzed, including location, diameter, number, capsular invasion, peri-tumor fibrosis, psammoma bodies, vascular and nervous invasion. The BRAF V600E mutation detection was performed in PTC tissue, the correlation of cervical lymph node metastasis with the clinical characteristics,pothological feateres and BRAF V600E gene mutation of the PTC patients were analyzed,and Logistic regression analysis was performed to analyze the influencing factors of cervical lymph node metastasis in the PTC patients.
ResultsIn the 321 PTC patients, 129 patients (40.2%) were found with cervical lymph node metastatasis. BRAF V600E gene mutation were found in 279 (86.9%) patients; there was no correlation of BRAF V600E gene mutation with cervical lymph node metastasis in the PTC patients(P>0.05).Cervical lymph node metastasis had correlations with age, maximal diameter, multiple tumors in bilateral sides, psammoma bodies and vascular invasion(P<0.05 or P<0.01). The results of Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that age (OR=0.729,95%CI:0.600-0.885), maximal tumor diameter (OR=1.796,95%CI:1.326-2.433), tumor number(OR=1.947,95%CI:1.225-3.096),psammoma bodies (OR=2.578,95%CI:1.037-6.409), and vascular invasions (OR=8.856,95%CI:1.929-40.656) were the influencing factors of cervical lymph node metastasis in the PTC patients.
ConclusionThe cervical lymph node metastasis of the PTC patients shows the correlations with age, maximal tumor diameter, tumor number, psammoma bodies and vascular invasion, and shows no correlation with BRAF V600E gene mutation.