AFP

Across TCGA pan-cancer cohorts, AFP RNA differs between tumor and matched normal tissue in 12 of 18 cancer types tested, making tumor–normal expression one of AFP’s most consistent transcriptional readouts.

The strongest signal is observed in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC), where AFP RNA is more highly expressed in tumor relative to normal tissue. In most cancer types AFP is over-expressed in tumor, although a few such as KICH and BRCA show the opposite, repressed pattern.

HNSC, COAD, and KICH are the cancer types where AFP tumor–normal differential expression is most reproducible.

RNA tumor vs normal associations by lineage

Ranked by sampling consensus. Fold-change is the tumor-versus-normal difference in AFP RNA (log₂); positive values indicate higher expression in tumor. p-values are from the differential-expression test.

Lineage	Gender	Stage	Fold-change	p	Sampling consensus
HNSC	All	II,III,IV	+0.120	<.001	10	view →
COAD	All	All	+0.154	<.001	8	view →
KICH	All	II,III,IV	−0.906	<.001	7	view →
BRCA	Female	II,III,IV	−1.285	<.001	6	view →
LIHC	Male	All	+0.997	.002	5	view →
KIRC	All	All	−0.565	<.001	5	view →
KIRP	Male	All	−0.680	<.001	4	view →
LUSC	Male	All	+0.244	.002	4	view →
LUAD	Female	II,III,IV	+0.111	.015	4	view →
CHOL	All	II,III,IV	−2.179	.001	3	view →
UCEC	All	All	−0.137	.044	2	view →
PRAD	All	All	+0.078	.041	2	view →

Pink = over-expressed in tumor, green = repressed in tumor. Showing the 12 strongest of 12 lineages.

AFP–HNSC

Open the HNSC breakdown →