XIAP and metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes: However, on multivariate analysis (after adjusting for age, sex, laterality, tumor size, focality, extrathyroidal extension, lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis), XIAP was found to be an independent predictor of DFS (HR = 1.28, 95% CI = 1.02 – 1.60, P = 0.0342) but BRAFV600E was not (HR = 1.22, 95% CI = 0.96 – 1.56, P = 0.1041) (Table 4).