Distinct risk factors of lateral lymph node metastasis in patients with papillary thyroid cancer based on age stratification.

"Declarations Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing interests. Ethical approval and consent to participateThis study was approved by the ethics committee of the Cancer Hospital of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (reference number: NCC2016ST-23). We explained intraoperative and postoperative risks to all patients in detail before surgery to ensure they fully understood the disease and surgical methods. Informed consent was obtained from all participants. Consent for publicationNot Applicable (NA). Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests."

"Funding This work was supported by a grant provided by the Capital Clinical Features Application Research (Z171100001017211). This work was supported by a grant provided by National Natural Science Foundation of China (82373439)."