MC1R

Across TCGA pan-cancer cohorts, MC1R RNA differs between tumor and matched normal tissue in 15 of 18 cancer types tested, making tumor–normal expression one of MC1R’s most consistent transcriptional readouts.

The strongest signal is observed in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC), where MC1R RNA is more highly expressed in tumor relative to normal tissue. In most cancer types MC1R is over-expressed in tumor, although a few such as THCA show the opposite, repressed pattern.

HNSC, COAD, and LUAD are the cancer types where MC1R 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 MC1R 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	+0.777	<.001	12	view →
COAD	Female	All	+1.010	<.001	10	view →
LUAD	Female	II,III,IV	+0.963	<.001	9	view →
THCA	All	II,III,IV	−0.566	<.001	9	view →
LIHC	Female	All	+0.443	<.001	9	view →
KIRC	Male	All	+0.442	<.001	9	view →
KIRP	All	III,IV	+0.921	<.001	7	view →
STAD	All	All	+0.693	<.001	7	view →
BRCA	All	II,III,IV	+0.294	<.001	6	view →
CHOL	All	All	+1.655	<.001	5	view →
READ	All	All	+0.815	.001	5	view →
BLCA	All	All	+0.595	.012	5	view →

Pink = over-expressed in tumor, green = repressed in tumor. Showing the 12 strongest of 15 lineages.

MC1R–HNSC

Open the HNSC breakdown →