Across TCGA pan-cancer cohorts, HLA-C RNA is linked to patient survival in 21 of 34 cancer types, making it the most broadly survival-associated HLA-C data layer compared with 3 for mutation status and 5 for mass-spec protein.
The strongest signal is observed in skin cutaneous melanoma (SKCM), where higher HLA-C RNA is associated with better overall survival. In most high-consensus cancer types, elevated HLA-C expression acts as an unfavorable survival marker, although some lineages such as SKCM and CESC show a favorable association.
SKCM, UVM, and THYM are the cancer types where HLA-C RNA most reproducibly stratifies survival.
RNA survival associations by lineage
Ranked by sampling consensus. AUC1 and AUC2 indicate survival in the high- and low-expression groups, respectively; the lower AUC marks the poorer-surviving group. p-values are from the log-rank test.