Across TCGA pan-cancer cohorts, HLA-DRB1 RNA differs between tumor and matched normal tissue in 12 of 18 cancer types tested, making tumor–normal expression one of HLA-DRB1’s most consistent transcriptional readouts.
The strongest signal is observed in kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC), where HLA-DRB1 RNA is more highly expressed in tumor relative to normal tissue. In most cancer types HLA-DRB1 is over-expressed in tumor, although a few such as LUAD and KICH show the opposite, repressed pattern.
KIRC, LUAD, and KICH are the cancer types where HLA-DRB1 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 HLA-DRB1 RNA (log2); positive values indicate higher expression in tumor. p-values are from the differential-expression test.