At the 13q13 locus, rs7334543, a cross ancestral 3’ UTR variant in BRCA2 was associated with decreased risk of overall HNSCC (OR (95%CI) = 0.91 (0.88, 0.94), pmeta = 2.39 × 10−8) and was independent from rs11571833, a stop gain variant previously identified in this region for UADTs14. Here, BRCA2 is linked to head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.