Virchow's Node

Virchow's node (or signal node) is a lymph node in the left supraclavicular fossa (the area above the left clavicle). It takes its supply from lymph vessels in the abdominal cavity. Virchow's node is also sometimes coined "the seat of the devil" given its ominous association with malignant disease. The finding of an enlarged, hard node (also referred to as Troisier's sign) has long been regarded as strongly indicative of the presence of cancer in the abdomen, specifically gastric cancer, that has spread through the lymph vessels. It is sometimes called the signal node or sentinel node for the same reason. Despite this, the concept is not directly related to the sentinel node procedure sometimes used in cancer surgery, and it is also unrelated to the "sentinel gland" of the greater omentum.

It is named after Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902), the German pathologist who first described the gland and its association with gastric cancer in 1848. The French pathologist Charles Emile Troisier noted in 1889 that other abdominal cancers, too, could spread to the node.