The ENT can do biopsy procedures to know what's what before he/she goes doing a regular surgery to remove something. This might include a fine needle biopsy (multiple puncture locations) on the node in question. In 3 days you would have a pretty accurate answer. My tonsillar cancer was diagnosed just from the node without biopsy of the tonsil. If it's in the node, the tonsil is a given. But besides the knife, there are scans you should be getting if things genuinely look suspicious. Multiple methods = less mistakes. Don't waste any more time. IF this is really something dangerous, it can move rapidly. A disease that is present in the lymph system is connected by that system to the rest of the body. If they find it there, you want to add a lung CT to the early scans to make sure that is regionalized to the mouth and neck. We have had patients here who were successfully treated for oral cancers, and the doctors never looked at the known areas of mets like the lungs. The patient did not fair well in the long run as the lung cancer was free to prosper for more than a year while they were treating just one area. As an attorney you likely know how those end up.... Were I you I would have the closest CCC in mind already, and I would be at the doctor's office on Monday asking for the 10 minute inexpensive FNB. If they insist on cutting before they know everything there is to know, if they delay in knowing what's what definitively