The matted nodes study reported in OCF news came out on January 13th of this year online in the Head & Neck Journal not some sleazy columnist( so it's not old nor questionable). So far all I've been able to get online is the abstract of the study
Matted lymph nodes I had a hard time understanding what a matted lymph node was from the descriptions in the abstract and news story until I found these pictures of CT scans showing matted/non matted
Pix of matted lymph nodes Charm