Evaluation of the Clinical Outcome of Carbon Nanoparticles on Thyroid Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Background and aim: An evaluation of the clinical outcome of thyroid cancer using carbon nanoparticles was conducted in this study. Material and methods: PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, ISI Web of Knowledge, and Embase were examined for all articles published in international databases. A keyword search was conducted until January 2023 based on the objectives of study. The current study was conducted based on the PRISMA 2020 checklist, and related articles were also found using Google Scholar. The fixed effect model calculated the 95% confidence interval risk ratio and mean differences. Stata/MP v.17 software was used to conduct the meta-analysis. Results: A meta-analysis of 17 articles was conducted after reviewing the abstracts of 333 articles; 49 articles were selected for full-text review. The mean difference of lymph nodes harvested between the carbon nanoparticles and control groups was 1.31 (MD, 1.31 95% CI 1.20, 1.42; p 0.001). The odds ratio of parathyroid glands removed unintentionally between the carbon nanoparticles and control groups was -0.84 (OR, -0.84 95% CI -1.21, -0.47; p 0.001). Conclusions: Based on the present meta-analysis, the administration of carbon nanoparticles during surgery can perform better in identifying and harvesting lymph nodes. Using carbon nanoparticles can reduce the chance of accidental parathyroid gland removal during surgery.