Head and Neck Imaging

Virchow's node

(Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow, 1821-1902, German writer and editor, politician and statesman, anthropologist, ethnologist, archaeologist and pathologist), solitary supraclavicular adenopathy, most commonly on the left side, sufficiently enlarged to be palpable. Such a lymph node is called a signal node as it may be the first sign of a malignant neoplasm situated below the clavicles. Squamous cell carcinoma, head and neck in a low neck node suggests a primary lung cancer, oesophageal cancer, or cancer of the uterine cervix, although a primary neck carcinoma remains possible. When another type of tissue is found in a signal node, thyroid cancer, breast cancer and pancreatic cancer are the first entities to consider. When undifferentiated tissue is found, lymphoma should also be included in the differential diagnostic list.
A signal node known to harbour metastatic deposits from a distant neoplasm is sometimes called Troisier's node.

RH