Across TCGA pan-cancer cohorts, RNA activity of the Smooth muscle cell apoptotic process pathway is associated with patient survival in 23 of 34 cancer lineages. Pathway activity is summarized from the expression of its 30 member genes.
The strongest signal is observed in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), where higher Smooth muscle cell apoptotic process pathway activity is associated with poorer overall survival. In most high-consensus cancer types, elevated pathway activity shows an unfavorable survival association, although some cancer types, such as HNSC and GBM, show the opposite pattern, with higher activity associated with better survival.
LUAD, KIRP, and HNSC 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.