목적: Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is uncommon in childhood and adolescence. Young PTC is often more advanced stage and recurrence is more frequent after surgery than that of adults.The aim of our study was to evaluate the characteristics, clinical course, and outcome of young PTC under 20 years old patients for proper treatment. 방법:Forty-one patients diagnosed PTC underwent thyroid surgery at department of otolaryngology, Asan medical center from January 2004 to December 2014. Retrospective chart review was performed about patient clinicopathologic characteristics and outcomes. 결과:Twenty-nine patients were girls and 12 were boys. The median age at diagnosis of PTC was 18 (range, 9-20) years. Neck mass was the most frequent first symptom in 36 (87%) patients and followed by incidental diagnosis. Fourteen patients (34%) had central neck metastases, 22 (54%) had lateral neck metastases, and four (10%) had pulmonary metastases. Four patients (10%) had thyroid cancer family history and there were no patient with radiation history on neck. With a median follow-up of 56.4 (range, 2-118) months, the 5-year disease-specific survival was 100% and 80.5% local and regional 5-year recurrence-free survival. Lateral neck metastasis was associated with disease progression (P < 0.05), however, age at diagnosis, completeness of resection, lynphovascular invasion, perineural invasion, presence of pulmonary metastases, BRAF mutation, overall stage, lymphovascular invasion, or extrathyroidal extension were not associated with disease progression . 결론:Young PTC patients showed relatively high prevalence of advanced stage at diagnosis. Lateral neck nodal metastasis implied higher chance of progression, therefore, careful monitoring and interventions would be necessary to these patients.