分化型甲状腺癌是最常见的甲状腺癌，包括乳头状癌和滤泡状癌，多为低度恶性的甲状腺肿瘤，经过手术及术后辅助治疗后预后较好，可获得长期生存。有淋巴结转移者需要行颈淋巴结清扫是基本的外科治疗原则，但由于分化型甲状腺癌生物学行为的特殊性以及颈部解剖复杂，手术危险性相对较大，易发生意外损伤和并发症，目前国内外对分化型甲状腺癌颈部淋巴结清扫原则的认识仍未完全达成一致。

Metastatic pattern of lymph node in differentiated thyroid cancer and regional applied anatomy of lateral lymph node dissection        JIANG Jun，LI Shi-chao.Breast Disease Center, Southwest Hospital, the Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China
Corresponding author：JIANG Jun，E-mail: jcbd@medmail.com.cn
Abstract    Differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) which includes papillary and follicular thyroid cancer is the most common form of thyroid carcinoma. Most patients are low malignant types and get a better prognosis with a long survival after surgery and postoperative adjunctive treatment. Neck node dissection should be performed on patients with lymph node metastases. However, on account of special biological behavior of DTC and complicated neck dissection as well as relatively high surgical risk and accidental injury or complications, neck node dissection in patients with DTC remains controversy.