Squamous cell carcinoma of the external auditory canal in young: A rare case report

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of temporal bone has been traditionally considered as the rare disease of elderly with a prolonged history of otorrhoea with a reported incidence of about 2-4 cases per million per year. The same disease in young individuals is very rare. We present a case of SCC of temporal bone in young male of Indian origin with short history of otalgia and very short history of otorrhoea without any history facial palsy. This gives us an insight about the aetiopathogenesis of SCC of temporal bone from prolonged otitis media and radiation exposure to genetic factors as for any other SCC of head and neck. Before presenting to authors this patient visited otorhinologist several times for otalgia and possibly due to short history and young age he was not subjected to any radiological investigations or biopsy and was treated symptomatically as otitis externa.