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Abstract Papillary thyroid carcinoma is the most common type of thyroid cancer. The optimal strategy for treatment of patients with PTC is complete surgical resection of clinically and radiologically evident disease within the neck. Cervical LN metastases are common in PTC and are associated with a significant probability for loco-regional recurrence of the disease, even in low-risk patients. This study was carried out on thirty patients with N1b stage of PTC. Patients with other varieties of DTC (follicular) or medullary and poorly-differentiated thyroid carcinoma were excluded. The aim of the study was to explain how lymph node ratio can be used to predict early disease recurrence for PTC. There were 19 females (63.3 %) and 11 males (36.7 %); their age ranged between 20 and 70 years with a mean of 46 years. All patients were subjected to thorough history-taking, complete clinical examination and vocal cord assessment by indirect laryngoscopy. Laboratory investigations (T3, T4, TSH, serum Ca, and routine laboratory work up), followed by neck ultrasonography (US), and computed tomography (CT) were performed for all patients, as well as chest X-ray, and CT chest when needed. Fine needle biopsy from suspicious thyroid lesions and suspicious cervical LNs (whether blind or US-guided) was performed. |