Across TCGA pan-cancer cohorts, ASPG mass-spec protein differs between tumor and matched normal tissue in 3 of 18 cancer types tested, making tumor–normal expression one of ASPG’s most consistent transcriptional readouts.
The strongest signal is observed in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC), where ASPG mass-spec protein is repressed in tumor relative to normal tissue. In most cancer types ASPG is over-expressed in tumor, although a few such as HNSC and LUAD show the opposite, repressed pattern.
HNSC, LUAD, and CCRCC are the cancer types where ASPG tumor–normal differential expression is most reproducible.