Across TCGA pan-cancer cohorts, MT-TN RNA differs between tumor and matched normal tissue in 4 of 18 cancer types tested, making tumor–normal expression one of MT-TN’s most consistent transcriptional readouts.
The strongest signal is observed in colon adenocarcinoma (COAD), where MT-TN RNA is repressed in tumor relative to normal tissue. In most cancer types MT-TN is over-expressed in tumor, although a few such as COAD and HNSC show the opposite, repressed pattern.
COAD, HNSC, and KICH are the cancer types where MT-TN tumor–normal differential expression is most reproducible.