Causative Role for a <scp> <i>BRCA2</i> </scp> Germline Pathogenic Variant in External Auditory Canal Squamous Cell Carcinoma
External auditory canal squamous cell carcinoma (EACSCC) is rare, affecting 1.6 in a million individuals. We report a case of EACSCC in a 66-year-old woman carrying a heterozygous BRCA2 germline pathogenic variant (GPV) (c.8537_8538del), with prior history of breast cancer. Tumor copy-number analysis showed loss of heterozygosity at the BRCA2 locus. Genomic scar analysis supported homologous recombination repair deficiency (HRD), with mutational signatures showing the predominance of APOBEC activity and lower contributions of HRD-associated single base (SBS3, SBS8) and INDEL (ID6) signatures. A somatic TP53 pathogenic variant was also identified. These findings suggest a contributory role for BRCA2 in EACSCC development.
Authors
- José Camacho Valenzuela (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0081-7964)
- Nancy Hamel
- Paz Polak (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2153-4488)
- William D. Foulkes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7427-4651)
- Dylan Pelletier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5343-9389)
- Carla Daniela Robles‐Espinoza (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3277-7466)
- Lili Fu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2261-0902)
Institutions
- Autonomous University of Queretaro (MX)
- McGill University Health Centre (CA)
- Jewish General Hospital (CA)
- Wellcome Sanger Institute (GB)
- McGill Genome Centre (CA)
- McGill University (CA)
- Quest Diagnostics (United States) (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Genes Chromosomes and Cancer
- Published
- 2026-04-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/gcc.70123
- Primary Topic
- Ear and Head Tumors
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research