Purpose: To explore the risk factors that may predict the lymph node metastasis potential of these lesions and new prevention strategies in papillary thyroid carcinoma patients.

Materials and Methods: In total, 9,369 papillary thyroid carcinoma patients with 37.17% lymph node metastasis were analyzed (Revman 5.3 software) in this study. The PubMed and Embase databases were used for searching works systematically that were published through to January 22, 2020.

Results: Several factors were related to the increased risk of lymph node metastasis in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma: age <45 years (pooled OR = 1.52, 95% CI = 1.14–2.01, p <0.00001); gender = male (pooled OR = 1.68, 95% CI = 1.51–1.87, p <0.00001); multifocality (pooled OR = 2.05, 95% CI = 1.45–2.89, p <0.0001); tumor size ≥1.0 cm (pooled OR = 3.53, 95% CI = 2.62–4.76, p <0.00001); tumor location at the upper pole 1/3 (pooled OR =1.46, 95% CI = 1.04–2.04, p = 0.03); capsular invasion + (pooled OR = 3.48, 95% CI = 1.69–7.54, p = 0.002); and extrathyroidal extension + (pooled OR = 2.03, 95% CI= 1.78–2.31, p <0.00001). However, tumor bilaterality (pooled OR = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.54–1.34, p = 0.49) and Hashimoto's thyroditis (pooled OR = 1.08, 95% CI = 0.79–1.49, p = 0.62) showed no correlation with lymph node metastasis in papillary thyroid carcinoma patients.

Conclusion: The systematic review and meta-analysis defined several significant risk factors of lymph node metastasis in papillary thyroid cancer patients: age (<45 years), gender (male), multifocality, tumor size (>1 cm), tumor location (1/3 upper), capsular invasion, and extra thyroidal extension. Bilateral tumors and Hashimoto's thyroiditis were unrelated to lymph node metastasis in patients with papillary thyroid cancer.