In the United States, the annual incidence of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) exceeds 50,000 cases. Primary tumor resection remains the first line of treatment in these patients yet follow up neck dissection and chemoradiation treatment may be indicated if cancer has spread to tumor draining lymph nodes. There is a push to minimize morbidity from neck dissection by sentinel lymph node biopsy, where only the first lymph node(s) draining the primary tumor are excised and evaluated for cancer spread. However, with current pathology methods, results are not available to surgeons until patients have been sent home. In response, we are developing a method to rapidly stain and image whole excised lymph nodes in less than 30 min, so surgeons can react to positive cases while patients are still on the operating table. Here we present a human head and neck cancer spheroid model implanted in porcine lymph nodes as a means evaluating the potential for our staining and imaging protocols to rapidly identify cancer burden in lymph nodes.
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