Fig. 6

Graphical overview. NGS-based targeted sequencing of DNA/RNA for 124 cases of cancer tissues, 58 cases of benign nodules and 81 cases of para-carcinoma tissues were conducted. Mutated genes in cancer tissues and benign nodules compared to para-carcinoma tissues were filtered out. The pathogenic loci were screen using ClinVar database and predictive tools - InterVar, FATHMM and Polyphen2. Mutation profiles were compared between cancer tissues and benign nodules, as well as the thyroid carcinoma cohort from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Further, co-mutation status analysis of the gene alterations was conducted in cancer tissues and a multiple-gene co-mutation pattern associated with lymph node metastasis was described. Besides, a multi-feature integration nomogram model incorporating gene alterations, clinical features and radiomics to predict lymph node metastasis by LASSO-logistic regression method