SMAD protein signal transduction

Across TCGA pan-cancer cohorts, RNA activity of the SMAD protein signal transduction pathway is associated with patient survival in 16 of 34 cancer lineages. Pathway activity is summarized from the expression of its 82 member genes.

The strongest signal is observed in cervical squamous cell carcinoma and endocervical adenocarcinoma (CESC), where higher SMAD protein signal transduction 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 KIRC and LGG, show the opposite pattern, with higher activity associated with better survival.

CESC, UVM, and MESO 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
CESC	DFS	Tertile	All	0.737	0.877	<.001	88	view →
UVM	DFS	Tertile	II,III,IV	0.416	0.879	<.001	71	view →
MESO	OS	Median	II,III,IV	0.272	0.526	<.001	63	view →
KIRC	OS	Quartile	All	0.904	0.838	.003	49	view →
LGG	DFS	Median	All	0.811	0.684	<.001	37	view →
ESCA	OS	Tertile	III,IV	0.672	0.313	.008	32	view →
SKCM	OS	Quartile	III,IV	0.705	0.171	.002	24	view →
READ	DFS	Quartile	III,IV	0.273	0.775	.006	19	view →
UCS	DFS	Median	IV	0.909	0.416	.008	18	view →
SCLC	DFS	Quartile	All	0.656	0.307	.003	18	view →
HNSC	DFS	Quartile	IV	0.455	0.200	.001	16	view →
OV	DFS	Median	IV	0.322	0.551	.009	12	view →

Pink = unfavorable, green = favorable. Showing the 12 strongest of 16 lineages.

GO:0060395–CESC (DFS)

Open the CESC breakdown →