Diverse presentations of cutaneous mosaicism occur in CYLD cutaneous syndrome and may result in parent-to-child transmission.

BACKGROUND: Clusters of rare cylindroma or spiradenoma tumors are a recurrent clinical presentation, yet conventional genetic testing results in individuals with these tumors are frequently normal.

OBJECTIVE: To determine if genetic mosaicism accounts for such cases.

METHODS: A study of 6 cases from a series of 55 patients who met criteria for diagnostic gene testing for pathogenic CYLD variants over a 5-year period (2012-2017) was performed. A novel genetic assay was used to study DNA from peripheral blood leukocytes and, where possible, matched skin and tumor tissue.

RESULTS: Two patients had mosaic pathogenic CYLD variants in both the blood and skin. One of these patients transmitted a pathogenic variant to her daughter, and we report the novel phenotype of a contiguous gene deletion syndrome involving CYLD. Two patients had recurrent pathogenic variants in skin tumors from a single cluster but none detectable in the blood.

LIMITATIONS: The remaining 2 patients had clinical features of mosaicism, but these cases were not solved with the assays used because of a lack of access of fresh tumor tissue.

CONCLUSION: Genetic mosaicism should be considered in patients presenting with clustered cylindromas, because this may inform genetic testing and counseling of these patients.