Head and Neck Cancer

Type

Cancer type (head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, HNSCC)

Role in Clonal Evolution

Head and neck cancer is one of the six cancer types identified by Burns, Temiz, & Harris (2013) as showing convergent evidence for APOBEC3B-dependent mutagenesis: elevated APOBEC3B expression, strong C/G mutation biases, cytosine mutation contexts closely matching recombinant APOBEC3B’s biochemical signature, and kataegis events. Among the six signature cancers, head/neck cancer showed particularly striking APOBEC3B upregulation — median expression exceeding that of breast cancer (the original positive control) (burns2013-apobec3b-multiple-cancers). The clustered mutations (kataegis) first characterized by Nik-Zainal et al. (2012) were originally described in the context of head/neck and breast cancers, making HNSCC one of the tumor types that motivated the search for an enzymatic mutator.

Key References

• burns2013-apobec3b-multiple-cancers — Pan-cancer evidence for APOBEC3B mutagenesis; head/neck cancer identified as a signature cancer type
• pcawg2020-pan-cancer-analysis — Pan-cancer genomic analysis
• nik-zainal2012-21-breast-cancers — First characterization of kataegis, originally described in breast and head/neck cancers