The node status of the central compartment is moderately predictive of that of lateral compartment. The presence of two or more positive central nodes may be of value in predicting lateral node involvement.

Background: Thyroglobulin washout of fine needle aspiration (FNA-Tg) has proved to be useful in detecting lymph node metastases from papillary thyroid cancer; however, the influences of thyroid gland, Hashimoto thyroiditis, serum thyroglobulin (Tg) and anti-TG antibody on the diagnostic performance of FNA-Tg are controversial. Patients & methods: We retrospectively collected the FNA-Tg results of 176 preoperative or postoperative patients (356 lymph nodes) who finally were diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer. The diagnostic abilities of FNA-Tg were evaluated and compared under different circumstances. Results: The diagnostic performance of FNA-Tg was uninfluenced irrespective of the status of thyroid gland or serum anti-TG antibody. However, high serum Tg was positively correlated with FNA-Tg (Exp(B) = 1.57; 95% CI: 1.209–2.309; p = 0.001). Conclusion: FNA-Tg was an excellent diagnostic tool, but it should be interpreted with caution only if serum Tg is higher than 10 ng/ml.

Eukaryotic initiation factor 5A2 (eIF5A2), a newly identified oncogene, promotes cell survival, proliferation and motility in tumorigenesis. Drug resistance and dose-related adverse side-effects greatly reduce the efficiency and safety of cisplatin-based chemotherapy in advanced or recurrent oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients. The present study investigated the effect of eIF5A2 combined with N1-guanyl-1,7-diaminoheptane (GC7, a novel eIF5A2 inhibitor) or siRNA. We found that low concentrations of GC7 (≤5 µM) had little effect on OSCC cell viability, but significantly enhanced cisplatin cytotoxicity. Compared with cisplatin, GC7/cisplatin had little effect on cisplatin-promoted mesenchymal-epithelial transition in mesenchymal phenotype Tca8113 and HN30 cells, or on cisplatin-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in epithelial phenotype Cal27 and HN4 cells. Further research revealed that the upregulation of p-STAT3 and c-Myc which was induced by the single treatment with either cisplatin or GC7 was significantly reversed by the GC7/cisplatin combination in mesenchymal phenotype Tca8113 and HN30 cells. In in vivo treatment, we revealed that the GC7/cisplatin combination presented significant tumor volume reduction without distinct body weight loss. In conclusion, our data indicated that eIF5A2 is a potent therapeutic target in OSCC treatment. Our results revealed a novel mechanism by which GC7/cisplatin combination therapy may offer an efficient and safe therapeutic alternative to advanced or recurrent OSCC patients.