Abstract: Although papillary thyroid carcinoma(PTC)is mostly inert,patients with neck lymph node metastasis are not uncommon.The occurrence of neck lymph node metastasis in thyroid cancer also means increased mortality and increased the risk of recurrence.Before thyroid surgery,color Doppler ultrasound should be used to fully assess the status of neck lymph nodes status.Ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration of the lymph node(LN-FNA)or combined the level of eluent thyroglobulin were used to determine large-diameter lymph nodes.CT,PET-CT or magnetic resonance examination were combined when suspected distant metastasis or invasive tumor growth.It is recommended that clinicians perform unilateral prophylactic central lymph node dissection(pCND)on cN0 patients who are negative for intraoperative frozen section diagnosis under the premise of technical guarantee,and perform double pCND for cN0 patients who are positive for intraoperative frozen section diagnosis,resulting in reducing the recurrence rate and the incidence of postoperative complications.In order to reduce unnecessary radiation therapy,better serve patients,and improve the quality of life of patients,strictly follow the guidelines are performed to evaluate whether patients need to receive RAI after surgery.

Key words: Thyroid cancer, Neck lymph node metastasis, Prophylactic central lymph node dissection