Clinical characteristics of papillary thyroid carcinoma patients with Delphian lymph node metastasis: a single-institution study, systemic review and meta-analysis - Predicting spread to lymph nodes in papillary thyroid cancer patients based on clinical characteristics

In own series, Delphian lymph node metastasis was detected in 12 (8.2%) of 146 papillary thyroid carcinoma patients and was significantly associated with tumor size >1cm (P=0.029) and extrathyroid extension (P=0.002) in the multivariate analysis. Delphian lymph node metastasis was highly predictive of further central lymph node metastasis (positive predictive value=91.7%, netative predictive value=67.9%) and moderately predictive of lateral lymph node metastasis (positive predictive value=25.0%, negative predictive value=95.5%).