C21-steroid hormone biosynthetic process

Across TCGA pan-cancer cohorts, RNA activity of the C21-steroid hormone biosynthetic process pathway differs between tumor and matched normal tissue in 14 of the 18 cancer types tested.

The strongest signal is observed in colon adenocarcinoma (COAD), where pathway activity is lower in tumor tissue than in matched normal tissue. In most cancer types, this pathway shows higher activity in tumors, although a few cancer types, such as COAD and LUAD, show the opposite pattern, with lower activity in tumor tissue.

COAD, HNSC, and KIRC show the most reproducible tumor–normal differences in pathway activity.

Tumor vs normal pathway activity by lineage

Ranked by sampling consensus. Activity change represents the tumor-versus-normal difference in pathway activity on a log₂ scale. Positive values indicate higher pathway activity in tumor tissue. The reported p-values are derived from the corresponding differential activity tests.

Lineage	Gender	Stage	Activity change	p	Sampling consensus
COAD	All	III,IV	−0.058	<.001	11	view →
HNSC	Male	All	+0.045	<.001	9	view →
KIRC	Male	All	+0.034	<.001	9	view →
LIHC	Female	II,III,IV	+0.062	<.001	7	view →
LUAD	Female	II,III,IV	−0.055	<.001	7	view →
KICH	All	All	−0.048	<.001	6	view →
UCEC	All	All	−0.044	.001	6	view →
LUSC	All	II,III,IV	−0.045	<.001	5	view →
BLCA	All	All	−0.043	.013	4	view →
BRCA	All	All	−0.014	.006	4	view →
CHOL	All	All	+0.090	<.001	3	view →
KIRP	Male	All	−0.035	.002	3	view →

Pink = more active in tumor, green = less active in tumor. Showing the 12 strongest of 14 lineages.

GO:0006700–COAD

Open the COAD breakdown →