GDF15

Across TCGA pan-cancer cohorts, GDF15 RNA differs between tumor and matched normal tissue in 14 of 18 cancer types tested, making tumor–normal expression one of GDF15’s most consistent transcriptional readouts.

The strongest signal is observed in colon adenocarcinoma (COAD), where GDF15 RNA is more highly expressed in tumor relative to normal tissue. In most cancer types GDF15 is over-expressed in tumor, although a few such as KIRC and KICH show the opposite, repressed pattern.

COAD, KIRC, and THCA are the cancer types where GDF15 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 GDF15 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
COAD	Male	IV	+4.353	<.001	12	view →
KIRC	Male	II,III,IV	−1.512	<.001	12	view →
THCA	Male	All	+4.424	<.001	11	view →
STAD	Male	II,III,IV	+3.388	<.001	8	view →
BRCA	All	III,IV	+1.637	<.001	8	view →
LIHC	All	III,IV	+1.710	.002	7	view →
UCEC	All	III,IV	+3.835	<.001	6	view →
KICH	All	II,III,IV	−1.305	<.001	6	view →
LUSC	Male	All	−1.666	<.001	5	view →
LUAD	Female	All	+0.883	.005	5	view →
HNSC	Male	All	+1.201	.024	4	view →
READ	All	All	+2.660	<.001	2	view →

Pink = over-expressed in tumor, green = repressed in tumor. Showing the 12 strongest of 14 lineages.

GDF15–COAD

Open the COAD breakdown →