Gene mutations as predictors of central lymph mode metastasis in cN0 PTC: A meta‐analysis

Abstract

Gene mutations could predict the tumor progression and prognosis, which are us to predict CLNM in patients with cN0 PTC, however, these results are not consistent. This meta‐analysis tried to identify gene mutations which could predict CLNM in patients with cN0 PTC. A systematic search was performed for identifying relevant literature published prior to July 2023 in three search engines: PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Science. Studies that investigated the gene mutations for CLNM in patients with cN0 PTC were included in our meta‐analysis. Sixteen studies, including 6095 cN0 PTC with BRAF mutations were include in our meta‐analysis. The prevalence of CLNM in cN0 PTC ranged from 13.7% to 50.6%. The pooled analysis demonstrated that BRAFV600E mutation is significantly associated with CLNM (OR = 2.01, 95% CI: 1.55–2.60, p < 0.001) in PTC and PTMC (OR = 1.70, 95% CI: 0.51–1.81, p < 0.001). Whereas, cN0 PTC with TERT (OR = 1.94, 95% CI: 0.51–7.36, p = 0.33) and KRAS (OR = 0.57, 95% CI: 0.51–1.81, p = 0.34) mutations might not contribute to predict CLNM. Our analysis identified that BRAF mutation was a predictive factor for cN0 PTC, as well as for cN0 PTMC, which could be useful for clinician to accurately choose prophylactic CLND and better manage cN0 PTC.