HLA-K

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

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

HNSC, KIRC, and THCA are the cancer types where HLA-K 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-K 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	Male	All	+0.963	<.001	8	view →
KIRC	Male	All	+0.899	<.001	8	view →
THCA	All	II,III,IV	−0.790	<.001	7	view →
BRCA	All	III,IV	−1.020	<.001	6	view →
UCEC	All	All	−1.833	<.001	4	view →
KICH	All	All	−1.189	<.001	4	view →
LIHC	Male	All	+0.902	<.001	3	view →
PRAD	All	All	−1.039	<.001	2	view →
CHOL	Male	All	+0.944	.002	2	view →
STAD	All	II,III,IV	+0.719	.021	2	view →
LUSC	Male	III,IV	−1.345	.023	1	view →
ESCA	All	All	+1.085	.010	1	view →

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

HLA-K–HNSC

Open the HNSC breakdown →