Table 4.

Studies examining NLR in association with clinicopathological characteristics of PTC.

	Association found	No association found
Age	Liu et al. [4] (lower NLR in patients < 45 years) Lang et al. [6] (lower NLR in patients < 45 years) Kim et al. [15] (lower NLR in patients ≥ 45 years)	Liu et al. [3] Kim et al. [5] Gong et al. [14] Manatakis et al.
Sex		Liu et al. [3], Liu et al. [4], Kim et al. [5], Lang et al. [6], Gong et al. [14] Manatakis et al.
Tumour size	Liu et al. [3], Kim et al. [5], Lang et al. [6], Gong et al. [14]	Liu et al. [4], Cho et al. [8], Kim et al. [15], Manatakis et al.
Extrathyroidal invasion	Manatakis et al.	Liu et al. [3], Liu [4] Kim et al. [5], Lang et al. [6], Kim et al. [15]
Multifocality	Gong et al. [14], Manatakis et al.	Liu et al. [3], Kim et al. [5], Lang et al. [6], Kim et al. [15]
Bilaterality	Manatakis et al.	Lang et al. [6]
Lymphovascular invasion		Liu et al. [3], Lang et al. [6], Kim et al. [15]
Lymph node metastasis	Gong et al. [14], Manatakis et al.	Liu et al. [3], Liu et al. [4], Kim et al. [5], Lang et al. [6], Kim et al. [15]
TNM stage	Liu et al. [4] (stages I-II versus III-IV) Lang et al. [6] (for stage I) Gong et al. [14] (for patients ≥ 45 years)	Liu et al. [3] Kim et al. [5] Kim et al. [15] Manatakis et al.
Histologic subtype		Lang et al. [6], Manatakis et al.
Thyroiditis	Kim et al. [15] (lower NLR in Hashimoto)	Liu et al. [3], Lang et al. [6], Kocer et al. [16], Manatakis et al.
Recurrence risk	Liu et al. [3]
Prognosis	Kim et al. [5] (for stages III-IV)	Lang et al. [6], Cho et al. [8]