Sphingomyelin metabolic process

Across TCGA pan-cancer cohorts, RNA activity of the Sphingomyelin metabolic process pathway is associated with patient survival in 17 of 34 cancer lineages. Pathway activity is summarized from the expression of its 20 member genes.

The strongest signal is observed in lymphoid neoplasm diffuse large b-cell lymphoma (DLBC), where higher Sphingomyelin metabolic process pathway activity is associated with poorer disease-free survival. In most high-consensus cancer types, elevated pathway activity shows an unfavorable survival association, although some cancer types, such as THCA and SKCM, show the opposite pattern, with higher activity associated with better survival.

DLBC, LUSC, and KIRP are the cancer lineages in which this pathway most reproducibly stratifies patient survival.

Pathway-activity survival associations by lineage

Ranked by sampling consensus. AUC1 and AUC2 represent the survival AUCs for the high- and low-pathway-activity groups, respectively. The group with the lower AUC is interpreted as having poorer survival. The reported p-values are derived from the log-rank test.

Lineage	Measure	Split	Stage	AUC1 high	AUC2 low	p	Sampling consensus
DLBC	DFS	Median	All	0.549	0.963	<.001	50	view →
LUSC	OS	Quartile	All	0.608	0.789	.002	36	view →
KIRP	DFS	Quartile	All	0.784	0.956	.003	28	view →
ESCA	DFS	Median	All	0.454	0.927	.004	26	view →
THCA	DFS	Tertile	All	1.000	0.866	.003	20	view →
TGCT	DFS	Quartile	All	0.655	0.908	.003	18	view →
SKCM	OS	Median	II,III,IV	0.864	0.817	.011	15	view →
CESC	OS	Quartile	IV	0.801	0.087	.010	12	view →
READ	DFS	Median	All	0.751	0.905	.008	10	view →
BLCA	DFS	Tertile	All	0.505	0.679	.022	9	view →
SCLC	OS	Median	IV	0.772	0.201	.024	9	view →
ACC	OS	Median	IV	0.858	0.557	.019	9	view →

Pink = unfavorable, green = favorable. Showing the 12 strongest of 17 lineages.

GO:0006684–DLBC (DFS)

Open the DLBC breakdown →