Across TCGA pan-cancer cohorts, PHOX2A mass-spec protein differs between tumor and matched normal tissue in 1 of 18 cancer types tested, making tumor–normal expression one of PHOX2A’s most consistent transcriptional readouts.
The strongest signal is observed in lung squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC), where PHOX2A mass-spec protein is repressed in tumor relative to normal tissue. In most cancer types PHOX2A is over-expressed in tumor, although a few such as LSCC show the opposite, repressed pattern.
LSCC are the cancer types where PHOX2A tumor–normal differential expression is most reproducible.