HLA-Z

Across TCGA pan-cancer cohorts, HLA-Z RNA differs between tumor and matched normal tissue in 11 of 18 cancer types tested, making tumor–normal expression one of HLA-Z’s most consistent transcriptional readouts.

The strongest signal is observed in breast invasive carcinoma (BRCA), where HLA-Z RNA is more highly expressed in tumor relative to normal tissue. In most cancer types HLA-Z is over-expressed in tumor, although a few such as PAAD show the opposite, repressed pattern.

BRCA, STAD, and LUAD are the cancer types where HLA-Z 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-Z 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
BRCA	All	II,III,IV	+0.322	<.001	6	view →
STAD	All	II,III,IV	+0.424	.018	5	view →
LUAD	All	All	+0.491	<.001	4	view →
KIRC	All	II,III,IV	+0.215	.016	4	view →
BLCA	All	All	+0.366	.014	3	view →
ESCA	All	II,III,IV	+1.390	.011	2	view →
READ	All	III,IV	+1.170	.046	2	view →
PAAD	Male	All	−0.945	.004	2	view →
PRAD	All	All	+0.657	<.001	2	view →
THCA	Male	III,IV	+0.578	.028	2	view →
KIRP	All	All	+0.231	.035	1	view →

Pink = over-expressed in tumor, green = repressed in tumor. Showing the 11 strongest of 11 lineages.

HLA-Z–BRCA

Open the BRCA breakdown →