Lymph Node Staging as Haruspication

Excerpt

According to those with knowledge of antiquity,¹ it was once accepted practice to inspect animal (and, on occasion, human) entrails to predict the future. In Mesopotamian, Etruscan, Hittite, and Ancient Roman societies, highly trained individuals now referred to as seers and priests harvested, prepared, and arranged explanted livers and intestines in hopes of identifying anatomic harbingers of fortune or doom for patients stricken with illness. This practice, apparently called haruspication, was occasionally used to develop more global predictions for weather, politics, and society. In this current era of oncology, highly trained individuals now referred to as pathologists and surgical oncologists harvest, prepare, and arrange explanted lymphatic tissues in hopes of identifying anatomic harbingers of fortune or doom for patients with resected cancer. This practice, called nodal staging, is occasionally used to develop more global prognostication systems for large populations of patients. …