PNPLA3

Across TCGA pan-cancer cohorts, PNPLA3 RNA differs between tumor and matched normal tissue in 13 of 18 cancer types tested, making tumor–normal expression one of PNPLA3’s most consistent transcriptional readouts.

The strongest signal is observed in colon adenocarcinoma (COAD), where PNPLA3 RNA is more highly expressed in tumor relative to normal tissue. In most cancer types PNPLA3 is over-expressed in tumor, although a few such as KIRP and KICH show the opposite, repressed pattern.

COAD, KIRP, and HNSC are the cancer types where PNPLA3 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 PNPLA3 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
COAD	Female	All	+0.928	<.001	11	view →
KIRP	All	III,IV	−1.618	<.001	10	view →
HNSC	Male	III,IV	+0.884	<.001	7	view →
BLCA	All	III,IV	+0.420	.007	7	view →
UCEC	All	II,III,IV	+1.591	<.001	6	view →
LUSC	All	All	+0.708	<.001	5	view →
THCA	Male	All	+0.147	.008	4	view →
STAD	All	All	+0.407	.006	3	view →
KICH	Female	All	−1.023	.004	2	view →
KIRC	All	All	−0.534	<.001	2	view →
CHOL	All	All	−1.157	.024	1	view →
READ	All	All	+0.836	.015	1	view →

Pink = over-expressed in tumor, green = repressed in tumor. Showing the 12 strongest of 13 lineages.

PNPLA3–COAD

Open the COAD breakdown →