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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Cancer Endocrinology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2024.1290617

Central lymph node ratio is an important recurrence prognostic factor for pediatric differentiated thyroid cancer

Provisionally accepted
Caixin Qiu Caixin Qiu 1,2Wu Shipeng Wu Shipeng 3Jiehua Li Jiehua Li 2*
  • 1 Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China
  • 2 Department of Thyroid Gland Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Region, China
  • 3 Yulin NO.1 People's hospital, Yulin, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The current risk stratification methods for Pediatric Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma (DTC) are deemed inadequate due to the high recurrence rates observed in this demographic. This study investigates alternative clinicopathological factors, specifically the Central Lymph Node Ratio (CLNR), for improved risk stratification in pediatric DTC.Methods: A retrospective review of 100 pediatric DTC patients, aged 19 or younger, treated between December 2012 and January 2021 at the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University was conducted. Clinicopathological variables were extracted, and univariate logistic regression identified factors correlated with recurrence. Kaplan-Meier (KM) survival analysis and subsequent statistical tests were used to assess the significance of these factors.The CLNR, with a cutoff value of 77.78%, emerged as a significant predictor of recurrence.Patients with a CLNR above this threshold had a 5.467 times higher risk of recurrence. The high CLNR group showed a higher proportion of male patients, clinically lymph node positivity (cN1), and extrathyroidal extension (ETE) compared to the low-risk group (p<0.05).Conclusions: CLNR is a valuable predictor for recurrence in pediatric DTC and aids in stratifying patients based on Recurrence-Free Survival (RFS). For patients with a high CLNR, aggressive iodine-131 therapy, stringent TSH suppression, and proactive postoperative surveillance are recommended to mitigate recurrence risk and facilitate timely detection of recurrent lesions.

    Keywords: lymph node ratio, pediatric, thyroid cancer, Recurrence, risk stratification

    Received: 07 Sep 2023; Accepted: 13 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Qiu, Shipeng and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jiehua Li, Department of Thyroid Gland Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Region, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.