6 week wait for lymph node biopsy results?

[Thymeout]

A relative has had a wide excision on a cancerous mole on his calf. At the same time, they took out 3 nodes to biopsy.

He's been told he has to wait 6 weeks for the results. Now, there is a chance that he's got the wrong end of the stick and the results will be there when he sees the consultant at his post-op check-up. But if he's right, is this a normal time to wait? And why?

I thought they could do a biopsy mid-surgery to tell if they needed to take more out, then and there.

The surgeon said, after his first op, that he was 80% sure he'd got all the cancer, and the second op, plus lymph nodes, was just to make sure, but 6 weeks is going to feel like a very long time.

That does sound like a very long wait. When I had lymph nodes removed last year during breast cancer surgery I was given the results 10 days later, even that felt like a lifetime. Does he have a hospital number to call with queries post surgery?

Many thanks for replying. Yes - I think ringing the hospital, just to confirm what he thought he heard, would be the way to go.