PTPR Family Deletions Are Associated with More Structural Instability in Tongue Cancer in the Young

Sunday, October 12, 2025

8:00 AM - 8:06 AM EDT

Location: 127

Disclosure(s):

Pallavi P. Kulkarni, MD:

faculty for this accredited education activity has no relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

Emily N. Milarachi, MD, MSCI:

faculty for this accredited education activity has no relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

Introduction: Oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma has traditionally been considered a disease affecting older males who use tobacco and alcohol. Recently, however, there has been an increased incidence in younger adults, especially among those without identifiable risk factors. We utilized optical genome mapping (OGM) to investigate whether variations in somatic structural variants (SV) could explain the differences in outcomes between young and older patients with tongue cancer. This analysis was conducted while taking into account clinical characteristics.

Methods: Fresh frozen tumors and whole blood from 8 patients younger than 40 and 13 patients older than 40 were acquired. We performed OGM on the tumor and blood samples to identify those SVs unique to the tumors. Identified gene mutations and gene fusions were cross-referenced with the COSMIC database. Wilcoxon rank sum tests and odds ratios (OR) were calculated. Patient clinical characteristics were noted. Data collection and analysis were conducted from 2020-2024.

Results: Average ages of young and old patients were 35.6 ± 4.6 and 71.5 ± 9.2 years, respectively. Young patients were more likely to have T3/T4 primary tumors (OR = 3.8) treatment of the primary with chemoradiation (OR = 8.2), and recurrence (OR = 7.2). Young patients were also more likely to be male (OR: 4.4), less likely to have traditional risk factors (OR: 0.4), and had better survival odds (OR: 0.5). In addition, young patients were more likely to exhibit deletions in PTPR (protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor) family genes and PTPRD than older patients (ORs = 3.3, 7.2, respectively). The number of SVs in samples with PTPR/PTPRD gene deletions was significantly greater (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: PTPR family gene deletions have previously been implicated in head and neck cancers but not in oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma. The association among PTPR deletions, SV, and age within our cohort may explain why younger patients have increasing incidences of oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma. Additional samples will allow us to extend the preliminary results obtained from our limited cohort.

Presenting Author(s)

PK

Pallavi P. Kulkarni, MD

Resident
Penn State Health/Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Hummelstown, PA, United States

Disclosure(s):
faculty for this accredited education activity has no relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

Co-Author(s)

Kimberly H. Chan, MD

Resident Physician
Penn State College of Medicine
Hummelstown, PA, United States

Disclosure information not submitted.
Christopher C. Tseng, MD

Resident
Penn State College of Medicine
Hershey, PA, United States

Disclosure information not submitted.

Presenting Author(s)

Emily N. Milarachi, MD, MSCI

Resident, PGY 4
Penn State Health Hershey Medical Center
Hershey, PA, United States

Disclosure(s):
faculty for this accredited education activity has no relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

Co-Author(s)

David Y. Goldrich, MD

Resident
Penn State Health Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery
Hershey, PA, United States

Disclosure information not submitted.
Brandon L. LaBarge, MD

Resident
Penn State Health Department of Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery
Hummelstown, PA, United States

Disclosure information not submitted.
VW

Vonn Walter, PhD

Department of Public Health Sciences/ Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, United States

Disclosure information not submitted.
NG

Neerav Goyal, MD MPH FACS

Professor; Division Chief Head and Neck Surgery; Vice Chair Patient Safety and Quality
Penn State Milton S Hershey Medical Center
Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States

Disclosure information not submitted.
JB

James R. Broach, PhD

United States

Disclosure information not submitted.

Senior Author(s)

DG

David Goldenberg, MD FACS

Professor and Chair
Hershey Med Center & Penn State Univ
Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States

Disclosure information not submitted.