Table 2.

Association of BRAF^V600E/TERT promoter mutations with clinical characteristics of PTC patients

Characteristics	BRAF−/TERT− (1)	BRAF+/TERT− (2)	BRAF+/TERT+ (3)	p-value	p-value	p-value
	n=72	n=258	n=12	1 vs 2	1 vs 3	2 vs 3
Age, years (mean ± SD)	39.1±11.9	42.2±12.7	65.0±9.7	0.060b	<0.001b	<0.001b
Sex (F/M, % male)	60/12 (16.6)	172/86 (33.3)	1/11 (8.3)	0.006c	0.460c	0.070c
Tumor size (mean ± SD)	15.4±9.7	14.4±8.6	26.2±12.6	0.26b	<0.001b	<0.001b
Multifocality	14 (19.4)	78 (30.2)	5 (41.6)	0.076c	0.088c	0.40c
HT	22 (30.5)	39 (15.1)	1 (8.3)	0.003c	0.11c	0.51c
ETE	19 (26.3)	73 (28.2)	10 (83.3)	0.75c	<0.001c	<0.001c
CLNM	50 (69.4)	165 (63.9)	10 (83.3)	0.38c	0.32c	0.16c
LLNMa	40 (59.7)	112 (46.1)	9 (75.0)	0.068c	0.20c	0.031c
LNMN >5	27 (37.5)	79 (30.6)	6 (50.0)	0.26c	0.41c	0.15c
No. of LNs harvested	34.9±15.6	35.9±18.2	44.3±24.1	0.688b	0.096b	0.115b
No. of LNs involved	6.2±8.4	4.8±6.2	6.6±7.4	0.11b	0.854b	0.36b
TNM staged
I	27	230	2
II	6	22	4
III	0	4	3
IV	0	2	3	0.19c	<0.001c	<0.001c

Notes:

^aThe percentage is only calculated in patients with lateral neck dissection;

^bthe one-way analysis of variance test was performed followed by post hoc least significant difference for multiple comparisons;

^cPearson χ²-test with Bonferroni correction; the Bonferroni correction compensates for that increase by testing each individual hypothesis at a significance level of a\m, where a is the desired overall alpha level and m is the number of hypotheses. In this table, the trial is testing m=3 hypotheses with a desired a=0.05, then the Bonferroni correction would test each individual hypothesis at a=0.05/3=0.16.

^dcalculations for stage (I + II) vs (III + IV).

Abbreviations: CLNM, central lymph node metastasis; ETE, extrathyroidal extension; HT, Hashimoto thyroiditis; LLNM, lateral lymph node metastasis; LNMN, numbers of lymph node metastases >5; LNs, lymph nodes; PTC, papillary thyroid carcinoma; TNM, tumor/node/metastasis.