Tetrapyrrole biosynthetic process

Across TCGA pan-cancer cohorts, RNA activity of the Tetrapyrrole biosynthetic process pathway differs between tumor and matched normal tissue in 11 of the 18 cancer types tested.

The strongest signal is observed in bladder urothelial carcinoma (BLCA), where pathway activity is higher 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 THCA, show the opposite pattern, with lower activity in tumor tissue.

BLCA, BRCA, and THCA 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
BLCA	All	All	+0.039	<.001	9	view →
BRCA	All	III,IV	+0.036	<.001	8	view →
THCA	Female	II,III,IV	−0.030	<.001	7	view →
LUSC	Male	All	+0.043	<.001	6	view →
COAD	All	II,III,IV	+0.015	.002	6	view →
LUAD	All	All	+0.027	<.001	5	view →
LIHC	Male	All	+0.020	.001	4	view →
KIRP	All	II,III,IV	+0.024	.006	3	view →
HNSC	Male	All	+0.017	.042	3	view →
CHOL	Female	All	+0.036	.014	2	view →
READ	All	All	+0.022	.003	2	view →

Pink = more active in tumor, green = less active in tumor. Showing the 11 strongest of 11 lineages.

GO:0033014–BLCA

Open the BLCA breakdown →