Hi Colleen,
Thanks so much for your reply. While I will have to retrace my steps to find specific information (often conflicting as the source then becomes more important) as to HCC spread, I did find this statement in the Clayman Thyroid Center article:

"Hurthle cell cancer has a greater risk of growing into blood vessels in and around the thyroid. This is called angioinvasion. This occurs, in fact, more frequently than hurthle cell cancer spreads to lymph nodes."

So, yes, as you point out, there is most certainly lymph node involvement in HCC spread but angioinvasion is seen as well. I don't think this statement clarifies where HCC tends to spread first.

If I find more information about this, I'll post it here. Thanks again, Colleen.