Does preoperative neutrophil lymphocyte ratio predict risk of recurrence and occult central nodal metastasis in papillary thyroid carcinoma?

Background: Preoperative neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) might be prognostic in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Given the controversy of prophylactic central neck dissection (pCND) in clinically nodal-negative (cN0) PTC, our study evaluated whether preoperative NLR predicted disease-free survival (DFS) and occult central nodal metastasis (CNM) in cN0 PTC.

Methods: A total of 191 patients who underwent pCND were analyzed.