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.